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The envelope please…

Two brothers, Jeff and Scott Fitzgerald, control the Wisconsin Assembly and the Senate. They seem to be the nominees for this years Class I felony awards and the air is filled with tension as Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne receives the “envelope” containing the winner’s name. The envelope is not your typical business size variety. No. This is more of a package containing 84 documents recording communications between the Michaeal Best Law firm and the GOP legislators who drew up the new district voting maps. The contents of this envelope could well declare the winner of the Class I Felony award, and the judge is reviewing the documents as you read this. The winner will rise from the Assembly or Senate floor amidst flashing cameras and shocked reaction of those assembled to approach the dais to give credit to all those who served behind the scenes, with a speech that will likely begin with, “I don’t know who to thank first”. Regardless of which brother is the winner, the recipent is likely to acknowledge their father, who was appointed by Walker as the head of the Wisconsin State Patrol. One can only imagine how the speech could continue but read a possible transcript in the side bar at the right.

Speech…Speech! I could not have done this without the expert guidance of Scott Walker, who demonstrated the courage and disregard of ethics during his campaign, to inspire me to accomplish these measures. I would like the thank all of the attorneys of the Michael Best and Troupis Law Offices and especially Eric McLeod whose name appears on many of the documents whose content has allowed me to accept this award. One does not accomplish great feats in a vacuum and I must give credit to American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) for their continued and undaunted efforts to manipulate state legislation, even though they had no acquaintance with the people of Wisconsin who would be affected. Then there are those brave GOP legislators who agreed to the confidentiality agreement. They have demonstrated the highest degree of heroism in quaffing the laws and statutes that protect Democracy in the State of Wisconsin. It is by their silence to the unethical maneuvering to produce maps, which are most beneficial to the greedy few, that I am here to accept this year’s Class I Felony Award. Thank you!

One Lawmaker – who asked not to be named

Who is this lawmaker…who had the courage to rebuke the Brothers Fitzgerald?
(From the transcript of the most recent broadcast of Wisconsin Public Television’s – Here and Now)

According to one lawmaker, who asked not to be named, the logic they were given was the maps and documents would be protected by attorney-client privileges and the secrecy pledges were needed to protect that. But this lawmaker he told me he felt part of the pledge was intimidation to keep the rank and file from complaining. The lawmaker was shown two versions of the map, one more favorable and one less favorable, and was told if he didn’t go along, the less favorable would become law. Redistricting debate rekindled – Friday, February 10, 2012

Watch Redistricting debate rekindled on PBS. See more from Here and Now.

Laws Broken – Class I Felony?

The state statutes cited below state in legalese that it is a Class I felony for legislator to attempt to influence the vote of another legislator by promising a beneficial outcome, like showing a legislator two different maps, one more beneficial then the other, in order to influence that legislators vote = Logrolling.(defined in 13.05)

It is also a Class I felony for a legislator to promise to vote for legislation in order to receive a benefit or favor from the governor, like agreeing on a district map in order to gain an edge in future elections when the map boundaries are signed into law by the governor. = Executive Favor. (defined in 13.06)

13.05 Logrolling prohibited. Any member of the legislature who gives, offers or promises to give his or her vote or influence in favor of or against any measure or proposition pending or proposed to be introduced in the legislature in consideration or upon condition that any other person elected to the same legislature will give or will promise or agree to give his or her vote or influence in favor of or against any other measure or proposition pending or proposed to be introduced in such legislature, or who gives, offers or promises to give his or her vote or influence for or against any measure on condition that any other member will give his or her vote or influence in favor of any change in any other bill pending or proposed to be introduced in the legislature, is guilty of a Class I felony.

13.06 Executive favor. Any member of the legislature who gives, offers or promises to give his or her vote or influence in favor of or against any measure or proposition pending or proposed to be introduced in the legislature, or that has already been passed by either house of the legislature, in consideration of or on condition that the governor approve, disapprove, veto or sign, or agree to approve, disapprove, veto or sign, any other measure or proposition pending or proposed to be introduced in the legislature or that has already been passed by the legislature, or either house thereof, or in consideration or upon condition that the governor nominate for appointment or appoint or remove any person to or from any office or position under the laws of this state, is guilty of a Class I felony.
Politiscoop

The court is likely to decide what to do quickly because the case goes to trial Feb. 21.

The PBS Nightly News summarized the 1 million signature Recall effort with words like: “Scott Walker became the target of protest last year when he curtailed the collective bargaining rights of most public workers”.

If they were covering the landing on the moon would they say, “The event began with a successful blast off”?

It is unconscionable reporting to shove this historic, grassroots, movement for democracy in the collective bargaining box. If you believe that is the real news, you do not “get it”. You have not done your homework. You are doing a disservice to the thousands of people who are working in a glorious service to their state and country!

Wisconsin Public Television Coverage D- or F

Here and Now is the Wisconsin focused, weekly news program on Wisconsin Public Television. It is hosted by Frederica Freyberg who manages to make the most interesting events that have occurred in Wisconsin politics in years, down right boring. If she ran a pasta place she would have folded long ago for serving soft, mushy, and unpalatable noodles. When news reporting attempts to be so nonpartisan that it misses the point, it is no longer reporting. It is allowing the status-quo opinions of both sides an opportunity to broadcast views that most people already know. Watching Here and Now, is like seeing a movie for the tenth time, only as a distraction from some other nagging responsibility like cleaning the toilet.

Recently, when the recall effort was first announced, Frederica interviewed UW-Milwaukee professor of Governmental Affairs, Mordecai Lee. He expressed doubt that activists could garner the signatures to reach the threshold of 540,000 votes to recall Walker. The program video and interview is no longer available on site Here

Even though his hand on the pulse of Wisconsin turned to be ice cold, this same out-of-touch “expert” was called (or recalled) back again when he stated:

If I were a betting man, I think that we’d say that he has a slightly better chance of retaining a seat than being deposed simply because he’s an incumbent, low turnout skews Republican.

The people can only take consolation in the fact that his opinion about the recalls is equal to his opinion about the election.

Missing the Real and Historic Story

Is it partisan to recognize history in the making? Is it honest journalism to ignore the difference between a heroic grass roots effort in face of a nationally organized attempt squash the people’s voice? The collective bargaining issue was the count down and lift off on the journey to open the door of a very dark cave of covert plans to push laws through the GOP controlled Wisconsin legislature; laws that were not even the product of any Wisconsin legislator or source. While the press seems stuck on “union”, the workings and influence of American Legislative Exchange Counsel (ALEC) is ignored. ALEC is the source of much more than union busting, it is the documented source of fringe right wing efforts that threaten the environment, voting rights, health care, education and the rules of the legislature itself.

This is the REAL story – High Time It Be Told

20,600 Signatures Collected
Only 16,742 needed to trigger a Recall Election.

Lori never planned to become a one-woman political committee. A freelance photographer and writer originally from St. Louis but now a resident of Fort Atkinson became the David to take on Goliath. She is not funded by big union, out-of-state-money but only by a deep beating heart for democracy. Against all odds she orchestrated the successful recall of Senator Scott Fitzgerald!

NPR – Frederica Freyburg – Scott Walker and Scott Fitzgerald Please Watch the Video Above.

You are not facing big union organization or out-of-state money. You are facing your constituents. You are hearing the voices of the people of Wisconsin who you failed to listen to over the past long, hard, year.

The Progressive roots of Fighting Bob La Follette are sending new shoots from Ashland to Prairie Du Chein and sprouting all along the Wisconsin River and the Door County Peninsula.
The Collective Bargain is made of thousands of people joining together to keep and make their government representative. To frame this message in the script of ALEC and the GOP is reprehensible, shallow, and will be diminished by the new spirit of progressive action.

Scott Walker won the 2008 Governor’s election with 1,128,941 votes or 52.3%
Tom Barrett lost the 2008 Governor’s election with 1,004,303 votes or 46.5%

Rumor trended on twitter #wisconsin last night -1,500,000 signatures collected to force a recall election

The First Lie

124,638 votes difference or a 6% margin is hardly a mandate, yet Walker turned Wisconsin inside-out and upside-down championing an ultra-conservative agenda, the specifics of which were never mentioned in his campaign.

Just a year ago, few people were privileged to the workings of a secret conservative legislative agenda being covertly implemented in several states including New Jersey, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The national consortium with no real roots or connection to the people of any of these states, is now known as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC was formed with the specific intent to gain control of state houses and to write legislation to be passed by Scott Walker and Scott and Jeff Fitzgerald to further changes in state law in favor the most ultra conservative goals of wealthy and privileged Americans.

Big money has always been a factor in state politics. However ALEC, in the hands of Walker and the Fitzgerald brothers represents a new and insidious threat to working families and children of Wisconsin and U.S.. Never before has such an attack been specifically orchestrated and launched on the people through their own local and state government.

Have you noticed that republicans are no longer republicans?

This De-republicanism is most obvious in national politics and especially in the primaries and the U.S. Congress. The primaries are divided between Romney and non-Romney, with the non-Romney candidates representing the fringe conservative agenda of the Koch Brothers and ALEC. The House of Representatives is split in just the same way as most recently exposed in the attempt to hold the vote for the tax break legislation before the holiday break, when Rep Hank Johnson of North Carolina spoke on the House floor after the vote:

It happened on the shortest day of the year. The Koch Bros. usurp the power of the House, the Senate, the President and the People of the United States.

The video begins with a cut from the bogus,chummy phone call to Scott Walker from David Koch last February.

The Koch Brothers Ended Up in Control of Congress – AND WISCONSIN

Scott Walker and the Fitzgerald Brothers are working to DE-republicanisation of Wisconsin as are their counterparts on the campaign trail and the Congress. These men actually represent a third force, or a third party hiding behind the republican party. Democrats can work with Republicans, they have for years. Progressives can work with Democrats. This new power grab of De-republicanism is a threat to all parties and to all people, and represents a covert take over of all political interests and a re-interpretation of the Constitution according to the untested philosophies of Ayn Rand, Austrian economic theory, and objectivism as legislated by ALEC through the mouths of Scott Walker, Jeff and Scott Fitzgerald, plus other de-repulicanized members of the Wisconsin Legislature.

A Walker/Fitzgerald Forced Recall is a VICTORY to be Celebrated!

All politics is local. The forced recall of Walker is Wisconsin’s local, grass-roots, bi-partisan reaction to ALEC, the Koch Brothers, and the fight to prove – Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey – the United States Is Not For Sale.

Make No Mistake About It- Scott Walker and Health Secretary, former Heritage Foundation Official, Dennis Smith did all they could to protect the profits of Insurance Companies over the health of Wisconsin’s families and children.

On January 3, 2011 Just hours after Scott Walker became Governor, Dennis Smith was appointed to serve as Secretary of the Department of Health Services . Dennis G. Smith, a consultant with (ultra conservative) Leavitt Partners, is a former (Koch supported) Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow and former Director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Under Bush/Cheney). Read More – Let Him Die – Ayn Rand

The Walker/Smith Plan to Protect Insurance Company Profits

Smith (pictured right holding viagra “waiver” capsule) wanted Wisconsin to be exempt from a federal requirement on how much health insurers have to spend on patient care. Officials are seeking a waiver to what’s known as the “medical loss ratio.”

The “medical loss ratio” required under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is 80 percent of premiums. The act required that 80% of consumers money went to health care as opposed to administration, buildings, and comercials on PBS. Walker/Smith asked to keep the state’s ratio at 71 percent this year and gradually increase it to 77 percent over the next three years so the money would be kept in the coffers of insurance companies. Read Take Action Against Dennis Smith

If the waiver were not approved with 90 days – insurance companies would get to keep the profits. Smith/Walker played a political hour glass game with the health of Wisconsin families. This is the kind of ploy that is taught to legislators through the covert conservative organization ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council). Smith was confident that any review by the Feds would take longer than 90 days, and he would get his way to preserve insurance company profits. Read Wisconsin Death Panel

The Walker Lie

Now Walker and Smith make it sound like they deserve the credit for Badger Care (Family Care) expansion!

For Immediate Release
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Governor Walker Announces Plan to Lift Family Care Enrollment Cap, Expand to New Counties
Legislative action needed to lift cap and expand long-term care program

Madison–Earlier this year an enrollment cap was placed on Family Care in response to a Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) evaluation which found a number of areas the program could be improved and made more efficient. After a briefing on the hard work done by DHS over the past couple of months, today Governor Walker announced a plan to lift the Family Care cap. Governor Walker’s plan also calls for Family Care to be expanded to additional counties.
Walker Press Release

Just for a Laugh – Read This Sentence from the Release

A very critical issue raised in the report was that the cost effectiveness of Family Care was difficult to assess. Because the Department was able to take the time to strengthen the program, Wisconsin now has the detailed data needed to develop solutions to ensure Family Care is on sound financial footing for those in the program now and for future enrollees.

The Critical issue – “Cost effectiveness was difficult to access” – yet they strengthened the program? No! They desperately used every deceitful trick like seeking a waiver to protect Insurance Company Profits!

Will Walker/Smith take full credit for Obama’s 23.1 Million Bonus?

Note the Bonus was a reward for children enrolled BEFORE Walker/Smith worked to CUT 35,000 families from the program:

“number of children enrolled monthly in Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) increased by 121,000 between 2007 and 2010. Wisconsin received the second largest bonus in the country.”
INCREASED ACCESS TO HEALTH INSURANCE FOR CHILDREN QUALIFIES STATE FOR FEDERAL BONUS
Wisconsin Receives $23.1 Million Performance Bonus for 2010.

Great News for the Children of Wisconsin – NO THANKS TO WALKER/SMITH

MADISON—Increased access to health care services for children through the BadgerCare Plus program qualified Wisconsin for a federal bonus of $23.1 million for this year, federal officials announced today. The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA) provides performance bonus payments to encourage states to enroll more uninsured Medicaid-eligible children and help offset increased enrollment costs.

Wisconsin received the bonus from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) because the average number of children enrolled monthly in Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) increased by 121,000 between 2007 and 2010. Wisconsin received the second largest bonus in the country.

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Read Reauthorization Act Reward Document

The Season of Advent is observed in many Western Christian churches as a month of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration Christmas. In a most ironic twist of time and expectation, early December of 2010 was also the season of a gathering of the most covert and well heeled advocates of the far right fringe with the singular expectation; to orchestrate a take over. The group or consortium of policy planners, who were brewing the secret elixir of the far right, were all but unknown in the Advent Season of last year. They met in Washington December 1-3, 2010, shortly after Republicans won political control over 26 statehouses. Since that time they have been exposed. They are disdainfully know as ALEC – American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC is peopled with the politically powerful and funded by the wealthiest and most fringe conservative element of the country. In 2010 the chairman of the Wisconsin organization of ALEC was soon to be governor of Wisconsin – Scott Walker.
ALEC Sparks Uprisings
ALEC – Deeply Hidden Agenda of Scott Walker and Fitzgerald Brothers

Voters in Wisconsin had been accustomed to resting on the good faith of a candidate’s platform and examining the specific changes and plans that would be pursued to accomplish the platform agenda. Not so with ALEC. Not so with Walker. You don’t need to be a political whiz to guess the answer to the question – What was what the most controversial policy that would surely stir a backlash of protest and controversy? Yes, of course the answer is, the curtailment of collective bargaining rights for most public workers. Yet, he never told us.

The Walker Campaign was a lie of omission pure and simple.

Walker never mentioned the ALEC plan to end collective during his campaign. He never mentioned the specific actions he had well in mind, but only repeated the mantra “I will balance the budget”. The Walker campaign was an unconscionable lie to the people of Wisconsin. If future candidates, Repubican, Democrat or Independent, are to be trusted to campaign on a specific agenda of policy, the only recourse is to send a message to Walker and Fitzgerald or any future candidate that such gaping lies of omission will not stand in Wisconsin. They have lowered the bar of truth of promise to voters. They must be recalled.

Wisconsin is a Moderate State of Fair Minded People

I love the people of Wisconsin who are neither red nor blue. They respect the face to face honesty of hard work and are filled with a moral common sense that spills and splashes across the harsh lines of politics. The enthusiasm in the first weeks of the recall of Walker is just such a splash back. The Walker administration has crossed a line. Like it or not, Wisconsin folks can take a good joke or prank but they don’t like to be fooled. Wisconsin people are leery of demagogues from the outside of their village, township, county or state, coming in and telling them what to do. Yet, this ALEC crowd has come to the town meeting to make all kinds of rules that have upset and alienated friends and neighbors by trying to shove way to much down their throats, way to fast. In the minds of many Wisconsinites, they have made fools of themselves and are trying to pull the rest of the state with them. Just listen to Scott Fitzgerald in the video below as he speaks like a newly ordained preacher just back from a conclave. Does he really believe that his ideas of a “free work” state reflect the wishes of the people of Wisconsin? He sounds like he is on some ALEC drug that he wants to push down our throats.

Center for Media and Democracy unveiled a trove of over 800 ALEC bills on its website ALECexposed.org in July of 2011.

While Walker and Fitzgerald are out sniffing ALEC, they seem oblivious to the reality of Wisconsin moderation.

They are just high on ALEC, while the rest of us look at them as though they are stars in some futuristic TV commercial.

Not so long ago, I would go to my face book page and read posts about new babies, a friend’s favorite music but only an occasional mention of the politics of Wisconsin. That was before Walker, Fitzgerald, and the GOP control of the legislature. Yes. That was before. Why was I so unaware of the first rumblings of the massive quake about to devastate a pattern of fair play, compromise, and respect that I had grown up with in my home State of Wisconsin? The media and the polls began to suggest that Feingold and Barrett were in trouble and this news was reinforced by an inordinate number of green “Johnson for Senate” signs along the highways and by ways of my travels. Somehow, I could not or would not believe it. Would Wisconsin really give up a leader like Russ Feingold? Would this pale, uneducated, candidate for Governor ever get more votes than Barrett? No. I would not believe it.

So, the people went over the loses, as after a poor round of golf, checking the score card of their district and State. We all had lost Russ Feingold to a barrage of attacks that, we thought surely, no one would believe. Some districts did fair better than others: Ron Kind over Kapanke was the saving grace of my little world. We all had to face the loss of Barrett to Walker and met the facts with attitude; we would grin and bear it. We had survived Thompson and other Governors. This would pass. We would be more watchful, and surely this would pass.

Then it got scary. The refusal to accept the federal funding for rapid rail, and stoppage of the clean burning incineration project could almost be expected. Then came the unimaginable. The slap in the face of all that was Wisconsin; Walker’s budget repair bill that would hinge on the curtailing the collective bargaining rights for most public employees; a threat which came with a icy authoritarian stab of calling out the National Guard to curtail any public protest. At first, it was like a punch in the gut taking the wind right out of the air itself. A shock was followed by a moment of quiet disbelief. After the quiet, came the storm of unity, solidarity and protest that rocked the State.

And no words can capture a manifestation of human truth, although we may come close from time to time, yet the scientific expression of eternity is not a digit but a looped, bow-tie symbol. Some called it “The Awakening of a Sleeping Giant” or defined the unity of spirit with slogans; “We Are Wisconsin”, “This is What Democracy Looks Like”. New worlds were created, “Fitzwalkerstan” and “Walkerville” where palm trees flourished as fire fighter’s bag pipes, and a contentious circle of drums declared the new boundaries for a longing for freedom that stretched all the way to Egypt. All I know is that times such as these, these moments, open a portal of light and hope when it is a gift to be alive.

I was so anxious get behind Joanne Kloppenburg in the first election since Walker, that I miss spelled her name in my first post. The goal was set high; to defeat a long time incumbent Supreme Court Justice. Finally, the solidarity and new activism could be put to a unified purpose to win an election against all odds… and the election was won, but only for hours, before an off hand prediction of Walker, “Votes found out of the blue”, came to pass. An apologetic County Clerk from Waukesha, found 14,000 votes…somehow. The “somehow” raised the eye brows of the national press and sparked a state-wide recount. The discovery of ripped and torn vote bags, gaping breaks in the chain of custody, and impossible comparative voter turn out numbers left questions, suspicions, and anomalies that remain unanswered to this day. The air of fraud and incompetence surrounding the Waukesha vote count seemed to trip into another dark dimension of a hidden cloak room of the Government Accountability Board, and hand to hand violence in the chambers of the highest court. Attorney Verhoff filled months with a few pages of explanation that a did not rise to remedy but left a want for justice to be reckoned with on another day.

By some secret stroke of irony the “open meetings – collective bargaining ruling” of July came after a violent encounter behind closed doors in the Supreme Court Chambers, that we would only hear of days later. Even as Walker signed his bill into law, any celebration of victory was hushed. It was a hollow fantasy of words on paper, having won the battle but lost the war, and the trumpet sounded to carry the theme of fantasy forward, before the ink had dried on paper. Dr. Seuss might have written the script. Let’s have a fake election! We will get fake GOP’s to run as fake Dems or fake candidates in a fake election. The whole fake idea failed when each Dem Candidate beat each fake in each district in every case to the tune of a wasted a non-fake $400,000. Now the real history is upon us. The real 1st in the long story of Democracy. There is no precedent for the decision of August 9. The greatest number of state legislators ever to face recall on a single ballot was two, we look at six Statewide!

Scheduling or Strategy?

Time to Stand with Wisconsin

Double checking the map Wisconsin is a gray shaded battleground state.

A day after his State of the Union address, President Obama visited the headquarters of power technology company Orion Energy Systems, Inc. in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. In a speech, Obama called for the U.S. to “up [its] game” in a time of increasing global competition. The decision to make Wisconsin the first state Obama visited following his State of the Union address was seen as making political sense, given the upcoming 2012 presidential election and the state’s central position in the “Midwest battleground”.Obama national visits

February – November a long, long time

Wisconsin has been engaged in the struggle of its live over the past 9 months. Many have noticed how Obama has been less than aggressive in his mounting the bully pulpit in support of the unions, teachers, seniors, and children of Wisconsin. As time passes without some message of strong support from the President through this whirlwind of vilification and attack, progressives can only begin to question his virtual silence through a challenged Spring Supreme Court race, an historic recall action against 6 GOP state Senators, a ruling of the State Supreme Court that dismissed the legislature from constitutional impertives regarding open meetings rules, and now, another historic recall effort against the governor of the state.

Bully Up

Why the silence? Wisconsin looks to Obama to take a stand against the Koch Bros., ALEC, Americans for Prosperity whose largess threatens the very heart of democracy. Secretary of Health Services (or Czar) is seeking a federal waiver exempting Wisconsin from receiving funds promised by the Heath Care Law that would will leave seniors cut from medicare and families, mothers, and children stripped of the safety net of Badger Care. This at a time when the infant mortality rate in Milwaukee is that of a third world country.

Climb up that bully pulpit and talk to us. We are on your side.

This is like asking Bernie Madoff to talk about ethical strategies for investors

Walker’s selection to be on the panel of this forum is a slap in the face to the people of Wisconsin or at least well over half of them, according to his 60% disapproval rating, and that was before John Doe investigation heated up last week.

NBC Chooses to Salt the Wounds of the People

What is more astonishing is that Brian Williams and Kate Snow don’t even get it! The very thought of selecting Walker to speak about Education in a national forum, offer his rejected policies credibility while providing him another opportunity to voice the sound bites that have already bitten teachers, students, and administrators with sharp and gnawing teeth to the point of bleeding. Wisconsin has fought, struggled, protested, and collected recall signatures in a long hard Spring and Summer to demonstrate unified rejection of Walker’s push to dismantle teacher’s unions with illegal and covert tactics to open the door to privatization of education.

Where was NBC during this struggle? Where was the panel discussion of Teachers from Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio? Where was NBC during the peoples’ struggle? You failed to cover any of the wounded soldiers in the battlefield, and now you offer the attacking Bush-like general an appearance aboard the ship with a helmet and uniform, smiling and waving “Mission Accomplished”?

Will The Real Questions be Left Out Again?

Most “coverage” of the conservative attack on teacher’s unions, and public education recent months, has ignored the obvious “smoking gun”. (Oh, I hope NBC will not ignore it, yet again.) A weapon of mass destruction so real and obvious that there was no need for an invading army to seek it out, but NBC is likely to politely pretend that what happened to education in Wisconsin was all Scott Walker’s idea. He and the majority GOP legislature thought of it all by themselves, as questions are asked with the “you” pronoun, to Scott Walker, defining the boundary of ideation with the Governor and no one else, while the “smoking gun” that is smelling up the room with acrid fumes stinking to high heaven, are likely to be ignored…yet again.

Read My Lips “ALEC”

The real “smoking gun” is ALEC. The American Legislative Exchange Council, fueled by fringe conservative donors like the Koch Brothers, lurking in the shadows as far back as the Thompson administration, but it took the “awakened giant” in Wisconsin to begin to expose its long history of elite manipulation of state legislative decisions. ALEC is the entity responsible for initiating all of the legislation to curtail collective bargaining and privatize education in Wisconsin and nationwide. It is not the goal of this post to further prove the covert workings of ALEC in the lives Americans. No. ALEC is no longer a secret in Wisconsin, but as NBC salts our wounds and features Walker as a Governor who represents some vital force for public education, will we at last be vindicated, just a little? Will someone in the mainstream media finally ask the “smoking gun” question? The ALEC question?

We will see…

Headline a quote from George Chapman

“O that he were here to write me down a N’ass! But masters, remember that I am an ass: though it be not written down, yet forget not that I am a N’ass.”

Shakespeare Much Ado About Nothing Act 4, Scene 2, lines 80-83

Lawmaker Steve Nass (WHITEwater) Wants Review Of Capitol Police Chief

Nass is calling on the state Department of Administration to investigate Tubbs’ actions during the protests.

Nass wants Chief Tubbs removed from his position if it’s found that he neglected his duty of keeping lawmakers safe. In this demonstration of his convoluted logic, he comes up with a connection about as provable as the string therory. Nass links an incident, where beer was poured on the head of (ALEC chairman) Robin Voss, to Chief Tubbs and the manner he handled the demonstrations at the Capitol over the past months. Makes perfect sense? According to Nass, it was obviously Tubb’s fault. He said protesters have continued to get away with more and more and now, he and his fellow Republican lawmakers are “on guard” at all times in and around the Capitol.

“The law is a N’ass — a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience — by experience.”

Oliver Twist (Chapter 51).

Tubs is to blame

Nass said that while the number of protesters at the Capitol has dwindled since the spring, the aggressive nature of the protesters has escalated. Nass said Tubbs is the person to blame for this increase in aggression because he’s gone out of his way to go easy on protesters occupying the Capitol for weeks earlier this year. “What happened in February, had that activity been corralled immediately, we wouldn’t have the problems we have today with legislators being stalked, with nails thrown into a senator’s driveway and all the other dangerous activities that have been going on that I don’t believe would occur right now had effective law enforcement took place in the Capitol building last February,” Nass said. Channel 1300 article

Partisan Empathy

Steve Nass demonstrates unusual empathy for his fellow GOP lawmakers, but never could quite get why people of color and, most directly, American Indians could be upset with the mascot names used in sports.

Tubbs Demonstrated New Model

Most of the evaluations of Chief Tubbs handling of the Capitol occupation and the mass protests of February and March, have been supportive and positive, and a model for establishing a rapport with organizers to prevent escalation of destruction and violence.

Steve Nass vs. the UW, “Part of the issue is we have foreign-born professors. Those professors say things.”

People who live in glass houses…

Judging from the history of this N’ass fellow, I would refrain from launching, yet another attack on a person of color.