Dane Co Assembly Race Has Two Great Candidates

Three candidates—Julia Arata-Fratta, Tony Hartmann, and Jimmy Anderson running to fill an open seat in Dane County's progressive 47th assembly district—lead the Fall 2016 Wisconsin Partisan Primary, now held in summer after legislative Republicans engineered election changes, (Wisconsin Legislative Council).

The 47th assembly district comprises neighborhoods on Madison's east side and a Democratic-progressive mix of several small municipalities in Dane County.

The August 9 Democratic primary winner will succeed outgoing State Rep. Robb Kahl  (D-Monona).

The three candidacies—Tony Hartmann, Jimmy Anderson, Julia Arata-Fratta—feature in a wide-open race as perceptions of the strongest opponent to Republican governor Scott Walker will likely decide the winner, (pp. 29-30, Wisconsin Elections Commission).

The winner of the Democratic Party primary will face no Republican opposition in November

Julia Arata-Fratta is a long-time public critic of Scott Walker, and along with Tony Hartmann, signed the 2011-12 Recall Scott Walker petition. In Dane County this visible support of a progressive agenda against Walker is political ambrosia. Jimmy Anderson did not sign the Recall-Scott Walker petition.

Two of the candidates—Arata-Fratta and Hartmann—have proven track records, and long histories of community involvement.  One candidate, Anderson, does not.

Both Arata-Fratta and Hartmann serve as city of Fitchburg alders, and have long advocated for public education and the environment against the hostile Walker administration and its donors (DeFour, Wisconsin State Journal).

Analysis of District 47 Assembly Race

Anderson Not Qualified for State Assembly

Jimmy Anderson has a compelling life story and would make an effective candidate for municipal or county office in the future.

A compelling life story is not sufficient to merit an endorsement from this site.

Anderson has scant public policy experience, no history of effective progressive advocacy, and has never held elected office in Wisconsin. But he does have $10,000, $50,000, $25,000, $2,000, and $500 donations to his Wisconsin assembly primary campaign.

Who wants this guy in office? Jimmy Anderson does, and the above donations are Anderson's personal loans to his campaign comprising over $87,000, according to Anderson's Campaign Finance Report (July Continuing - covering all activity from Jan. 1, 2016-June 30, 2016).

A newcomer to district 47, Anderson moved into the district from the neighboring assembly district, the result of an apparent assembly seat-shopping excursion.

Anderson was reportedly urged by local activists to wait or get experience before running for assembly district 47. Anderson ignored the advice and instead loaned his campaign the large infusions in an effort to win the seat this August 9.

Anderson has missed numerous important votes as a citizen, including statewide Supreme Court races and a statewide race for Superintendent of Public Instruction, according to data obtained from the Wisconsin Elections Commission site, comparing Anderson's voting activity, (BD - 08-26-1986), with elections held the past four years.

Jimmy Anderson's candidacy appears more for the benefit of Anderson, and less for the residents of the 47th assembly district.

This is not to question Anderson's ethics or decency, rather to state public service is for the benefit of the public and not for the prospective public servant.

It would be an insult for an assembly candidate to parachute into a district, attempt to buy the seat, and criticize the outgoing state representative in campaign literature while the candidate expects to gain the loyalty of would-be constituents for whom their local state representative is the most intimate connection to state government.

This is precisely what Jimmy Anderson is attempting to pull off. Such an effort should be discouraged.

Tony Hartmann Qualified Now to Serve

Tony Hartmann is qualified now to serve as a state rep. for Assembly District 47.

Born in Dane County, a longtime resident of the district, current Fitchburg alder, small business owner and MATC instructor, Hartmann would hit the ground running in the Capitol. He handles difficult policy and politics questions with apparent ease and obvious candor.

Residents may have noticed Hartmann fairly haunting doors this spring and summer, as Hartmann invites and fields an array of policy questions.

Brilliant, decent and hardworking, Hartmann would make an excellent state rep. against a sociopathic and doctrinaire Republican Party of Wisconsin.

Julia Arata-Fratta Qualified Now to Serve

"Outraged" at Scott Walker, reads Julia Arata-Fratta's latest campaign literature, repeating a central theme of her candidacy supporting the UW System, public education and a restoration of funding for technical colleges.

Julia Arata-Fratta is an outstanding candidate and is qualified now to serve as a state rep. for Assembly District 47.

Arata-Fratta moved to Fitchburg over 12 years ago and this policy wonk would be Wisconsin's second Latino serving in the state assembly, (Julia for Assembly), (Madison.365).

Nearly every Fitchburg resident contacted has either met or heard of the rising star who, if elected, has the policy acumen, intellect and dynamic personality to become a U.S. senator in the next 10 years.

As Arata-Fratta's campaign biography indicates, it's difficult to find a sector of society that this proud mother, successful professional service woman and Fitchburg alder is not involved.

Whether District 47 voters elect Tony Hartmann or Julia Arata-Fratta, the future of this progressive, growing, and hyper-educated district looks bright.

Law Does Apply to the Rightwing and Koch Brothers

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) of Wisconsin - AFP
Is the main the main political group run by the Koch brothers.
AFP is 501(c)4; The regulations about IRC 501(c)(4)s provide
that promotion of social welfare does not include participation
or intervention in political campaigns, reads an IRS document.

The MacIver Institute, Wisconsin Reporter, MediaTrackers and the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute are an effective party press for the Wisconsin Republican Party, as they lawyer up.

Hey, just chat, cooperate and talk straight and you won't even need lawyers unless you really went bent the law the last two years, or are a part of politcal dark money.

• MacIver Institute - 501(C)(3)
• The Wisconsin Reporter - a protect of the  Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to promoting rightwing propaganda
• MediaTrackers  - a 501(c)(3( devoted to rightwing propaganda
• Wisconsin Policy Research Institute - a 501(c) Non-Stock Corporation

I care about the people of the Republican Party too much to see them live lives of dependence on legal funds and their destiny controlled by attorneys.

So, some free info:

"Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity," reads an IRS guide.

Palm Beach Press Reporter said in Feb. 2012 interview with David Koch that he took credit
for Republicans maintaining control of the state Senate Wisconsin in recall elections

Scott Walker and Black Box Voting in Rural Wisconsin

Black Box - Don't trust elections
that cannot be verified

The Brad Blog is the place to read up on the GOP stealing elections.

Here's another must read: How Walker Stole the Recall Election, by Dennis Kern.

On Civility and Rights

Scott Walker on motorcycle at Operation Freedom event.
Walker's personal aides stole from fund
meant for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan

Scott Walker is making a big show over the eating of brats and beer as he tries to put in the past the GOP voter obstruction efforts, the attack on workers' rights, stealing from veterans and his racially charged campaign to retain rule.

A look at Fitchburg Fire Station, Number 2 last Tuesday reveals why Walker's latest gimmick rings hollow.

The four wards in this district voted with some 78 percent turn-out, a record high for these wards.

Long lines virtually all day for new registrants—overwhelmingly black or young—did not deter anyone from voting but the lines did demonstrate the rigor of Wisconsin's voter registration process that did the job of establishing residency and identity of voters, while the GOP shouted 'voter fraud,' continuing its years-long lie right up to the days directly before the June 5 election.

That's one of the problems with today's Republicans; they are utterly shameless about lying, and lying to take away the fundamental rights of our fellow citizens for not voting Republican.

At the polling place, folks waited in line; entertained the young ones, and made a dynamic community committed to each others' rights and their personal duty.

Scott Walker has made a commitment to decimating the rights of those citizens independent or hostile to Walker's political ambitions.

Stealing Veterans' Good Name

As for Scott Walker's future, his time is coming. Check out this piece on Tim Russell and Walker.

Of special note is Russell's registering the VETERANS HOUSING FOUNDATION, INC, another example of the Walker's gang using veterans' good name as they pretend to care about veterans and then steal their money and their honor.

The problem is the so-called VETERANS HOUSING FOUNDATION, INC has nothing to do with veterans and specifically nothing to do with housing veterans, never did and never will. Just an empty shell. Operation Freedom, Walker style.

The registered name of the business is the perfect metaphor for the Walker con game, just a lot of names and words that sound appealing and advances Russell and Walker's political careers, a game Walker continues today as Russell now faces multiple criminal charges, the investigation of which Walker tried to stonewall.

03/01/2010 VETERANS HOUSING FOUNDATION, INC. HERITAGE GUARD PRESERVATION SOCIETY INC

9323 W GREENFIELD AVE STE C
WEST ALLIS, WI 53214

Notice the Registrant of 'Heritage Guard Preservation Society' is disguised as a Housing Foundation for Veterans, but manta [a small business trade group] says it’s an apartment rental agency. (With three employees, I wonder who they were)

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Is STILL Unfit for Office

Had the pleasure of meeting Glen Barry while he was a doctoral student at UW-Madison.

As the recall nears of the most corrupt and dishonest governor in Wisconsin history, Glen felt the need to write of his time as a fellow undergraduate of Scott Walker's at Marquette University.

Walker at Marquette is just what you would expect watching his current trashing of the state of Wisconsin, selling out the people as he grabs $millions from out-of-state.

Walker is the kind of man-child who attracts self-loathing men like Walker’s criminally charged aides, Tim Russell (who stole $10,000s from veterans and their families) and Russell’s partner, Brian Pierick (charged with one felony count of child enticement and one felony count of exposing genitals), and who then used part of the embezzled money—as aides to Scott Walker and former operators of the website, ScottWalker.org—to then register the ScottWalker.org site.

Dishonest to the core and up to his eyeballs in scandal and duplicity; that's Walker.

Personal Essay by Dr. Glen Barry

The year was 1988 – current Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is running for Marquette University student body President. Hoping to shake off the embarrassing loss to a write-in candidate for resident hall President the year before, Walker is pulling out all the charm and hardnosed political tactics at his disposal. Things are going well until the student newspaper retracts its endorsement, calling candidate Walker “unfit for office”, but I am getting ahead of myself.

For the 99% of you reading this essay – who are not from Wisconsin – Scott Walker is the latest tea party, right-wing, uneducated, superstitious nut job bent upon destroying America with a virulent form of conservatism bordering upon fascism. In early 2011, after only days in office, and without running on the issue, Walker threatened to call out the state national guard to ram through reforms to gut public unions. Over coming months, Wisconsin citizens fought back – coming out by the hundreds of thousands in a “Cheddar Rebellion” to protest and occupy the state capitol – and though ultimately unsuccessful, laying the foundation for the Occupy Movement.

Thus began a year of Walker’s war upon the unions, environment, women, education and basic human decency. And Wisconsin’s solid and hard-working people – that respect human rights, political institutions, and fairness – are still fighting back with a recall election this coming June 5th. After nearly a million recall signatures were gathered, Governor Walker could become only the third governor in American history to be booted from office. Ecological Internet and I are based in Wisconsin, and were deeply involved in the original protests.

I had the misfortune of being a college classmate of Scott Walker. Walker attended Marquette from 1986 to 1990, two years younger than I. He was a laughable dork – dumb, full of himself, and authoritarian. Being deeply imperfect myself, nonetheless, I have to speak up on how going to college with Walker showed him to be a piece of work. And that his bad conduct, which began there, and led to a harsh and unjust start to his political life, which remains ugly and dangerous to this day, do in fact indicate Walker remains unfit for office.

Fresh from Badger Boys State leadership conference, freshly shorn of his mullet, and in ill-fitting suits; Scott rolled onto campus in 1986 at 18 already running for office. He was constantly speaking in sound bites, with a false sugary sweetness, about taxes and abortion – the only issues which Scott Walker truly cared about other than his personal quest for power.

To put it politely, Walker was not the sharpest tool in the shed, actually amongst the least sharp. With a C average (if that) and never graduating, I am not surprised to see him making up his own math on jobs when the real numbers don’t suit him. This reflects the utter disdain with which he holds truth, knowledge, education, and anything else that clashes with his absolutist worldview of religious and corporate based rule. As a classmate, he displayed a shocking lack of curiosity, original thought, or interest in topics other than his political ascendency.

Walker’s debut in Marquette student politics as a freshman began by stirring up the campus with a McCarthyite investigation into misspending by the Homecoming committee. Despite the President and Vice-President of student government having already resigned over personal expenditures by a larger group of student leaders from student funds – including myself and others unknowingly – no criminal charges of any kind, and no hard evidence of wrong-doing by anyone, Walker grandstands and leads a student government trial of myself and others, that could have been avoided if he so chose.

Walker lost on all counts, but not before destroying a few people’s reputations, and amassing personal power. Sound familiar? Thus began an over 25 year record of bullying to get what he wants, of being insincere and narcissistic, and political grandstanding at the expense of others¸ all for personal self-aggrandizement, and without an ounce of either personal or political virtue.

Later in his freshman year Walker ran for his first campus-wide office – the President of the resident halls – and is beaten by a hastily cobbled together write-in campaign which I helped organize. Already the campus had soured upon a plastic, dishonest, conniving personality.

During Walker’s student body Presidential campaign in his sophomore year, things only worsen. Initially the Marquette Tribune student newspaper endorsed Walker’s opponent – a progressive activist working on social justice issues in the community – but said both would make a good student body president.

But this tepid endorsement changed after Walker was sanctioned for illegal campaigning on numerous occasions, and brutal personal attacks upon his opponent’s character. Meanwhile Walker’s campaign was secretly and systematically throwing out copies of the newspaper that endorsed his opponent.

In an unprecedented move, the newspaper retracted itself and declared Walker “unfit for office”. Scott Walker lost in a land slide and was deeply humiliated by his poor conduct.

Thus began an early pattern of ridiculing those concerned with social justice, homelessness, militarism, and racism. Forget about it, in his corporatist and religious world, such issues are not of concern. To care for others’ needs is unlikely to further his political power grab. Reducing taxes and ruling women’s bodies is all he cared about then, and all he seems to care passionately about now.

Scott Walker shamed himself by the way he acted at Marquette. His campaign was one of the dirtiest in school history. Walker left the university not long afterward. The fact that Walker has refused to release his transcripts, along with information why he left, raises reasonable questions if Walker left school on his own volition, as he claims, or if there was another reason and he was kicked out.

I wish I could say definitely why he never graduated – it is a closely guarded secret. I believe the general line of thinking – that Scott Walker was caught cheating. Both Walker and Marquette University should end their cover-up of what occurred. Instead Marquette hails Walkers as a “Marquette alumnus” even though he only attended and did not graduate.

I should note that in his junior year, after being pummeled in student politics, Walker seemed a reformed and humbled man, and tried to make amends. For a while he was just himself, and not always conniving to get something with false plastic, creepy insincerity. Indeed, I have fond memories of drinking beers with a more humane Walker, as friendly adversaries. Yet clearly he went back over to the dark side after leaving Marquette, returning to his scorched Earth, divide-and-conquer mentality that got him in so much trouble there, and to this day.

Scott Walker is still unfit for office. During his time as Milwaukee County executive, massive illegal fund-raising went on feet from his office door. In the past year and a half, Governor Walker preemptively threatened not only eerily to call out the National Guard, he threatened to illegally arrest political opponents. He refers to hard working nurses, fire-fighters, cops, teachers, and government workers as union thugs. For months he illegally limited access to the Capitol – the people’s house. Corporate interests were given the keys to the state, and told to go forth and plunder.

And now Governor Walker has sold out the state to the national tea party movement for a 25 to 1 advantage in money for his recall campaign – and is saturating the airwaves with lies, trying to buy the election.

In closing, let me note it is really sad to see a politician taking advantage of the jealousy between those that did not work hard in school, did not get an education, and thus have smaller opportunities; and those that worked hard to build their minds, and now work in professional, yet underpaid public service jobs. His campaign preys upon class jealousy, ignorance and racism in rural areas, kowtowing to the lowest denominator of decency in the populace.

I know a petty tyrant when I see one. Scott Walker is concerned with one thing, power. He has shown time and again that he has a very limited view of the world, and will ram through policies not because they work or he believes in them, but because he is an aspiring tinpot dictator.

Walker seeks to consolidate his power with every move he makes. Everything comes down to a cruel calculus of whether it benefits him personally and politically, with no concern regarding the line of victims behind him, or concern with such “socialist” virtues as human rights, economic justice, equity, and sustaining ecology.

Walker’s glib narcissism borders upon sociopathy. If this is the best the right wing nut jobs have we are in profound trouble as ecosystems, rights, justice, and equity are all rolled back in the interest of low paying jobs and corporate rule. In fact, Walker’s conduct meets all the definitions of a classic fascist – authoritarian, gutting unions and education, scapegoating, threatening violence, vilifying critics, being charming yet falsely charismatic, and commitment to corporatist rule.

Scott Walker is a bad and dangerous man. There is something fundamentally wrong with Walker’s personality that makes him unfit for office – both then and now. That’s my and many others’ conclusion after seeing how abusive and ill-tempered he was then, and how bad of political bully he has become.

Let me be clear - I have not a shred of jealousy regarding my former classmate. I would never want to rule over women’s bodies, dismantle Wisconsin’s prized educational system, sell-out the state with massive tax breaks to out-of-state corporations, or wage war upon tribal rice lands and working families. And I recognize unions – the right to associate with others to organize to sell your labor to the highest bidder – to be a fundamental human right.

I am not fit to be governor, and abhor local politics, focusing instead upon issues of global ecological sustainability. And I was no angel in college, partying too much and a caddish oaf towards women, despite graduating with honors. But I am not running for governor, nor misrepresenting myself like Walker, and certainly not untruthfully taking away others’ rights, while again trying to steal an election, in order to cravenly pursue absolute power.

I don’t know who will win the recall, but I do know that if you are expecting things to settle down if Walker wins, you are going to be disappointed. For his whole life Walker has created crises to then divide and conquer opposition in order to consolidate his power.

Though Governor Walker never attained the Marquette student body presidency – he has an awful lot in common with one of Wisconsin’s other infamous politicians who did – Senator Joe McCarthy. Have you no sense of decency, Scottie, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?
#

Dr. Barry can be reached for interviews on this and other matters at glen.barry@gmail.com

On jobs—Scott Walker v. Center for Wisconsin Strategy

Scott Walker on jobs - Grifting and winnowing

Scott Walker's lies against empirical rigor; state's jobs deficit over 225,000

Wisconsin lost jobs again in April 2012, ending the month 5,900 jobs behind where it started.

This means Wisconsin continues to fall behind even as the national labor market slowly grows.

Job losses hit the private sector, which lost 6,200 jobs. The public sector grew by 300 jobs.

By the Center for Wisconsin Strategy



From the Center for Wisconsin Strategy



After a very weak 2011 — indeed using Current Employment Survey (CES) data Wisconsin posted the worst 2011 job performance in the nation — the state started 2012 on a better footing, with two consecutive months of job gains. March and April’s losses undermine that trend and should serve as a reminder that recovery in the state remains weak.

Even using the recently released data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, which shows jobs slightly up in 2011 in contrast to the decline shown in the CES, growth is so weak (2,000 jobs per month) that it will take more than a decade to recover from the recession at this pace.

The state’s jobs deficit remains over 225,000, a gap which accounts both for job losses and population growth. We still need 150,000 jobs for Wisconsin simply to get back to the number of jobs it had before the recession began in December 2007. And to keep pace with population growth since December 2007, we need to add another 75,500 jobs.

Both manufacturing and construction lost jobs in April. The recession was brutal for manufacturing, leaving the sector with a loss of 15 percent of its jobs, but the sector’s recovery has been fairly steady. Though the sector lost 1,300 jobs in April, it has posted growth over the last two years and is now 10 percent below December 2007. Construction, by contrast, was hit harder by the downturn and posted declines into the last year. There is little evidence of economic turnaround in this sector, which lost another 1,700 jobs last month.

Unemployment fell slightly from 6.8 percent to 6.7 percent in April. It remains well above prerecession levels but is drifting slowly downward.

Tom Barrett, The First Debate on Friday; Look into the Camera and Say

Scott Walker - Smile and smile, and be a villain

My fellow Wisconsin citizens it gives me no pleasure to say what's on my mind tonight. To be blunt and candid about my opponent, Scott Walker who was recalled by the Wisconsin people:

Scott Walker is lying to you.

And I don't mean the polticians' spin on why Scott has established a legal defense fund and why his top aides are charged with stealing from veterans to running Scott's 2010 campaign from the Milwaukee County executive's office, among other crimes.

Scott won't address these charges tonight; he'll just respond to questions of his criminal culpability as a "distraction," from him. It's all about him.

I mean he has pursued a secret agenda: Telling billionaires one thing, and then telling the Wisconsin people another thing.

On jobs, on fiscal policy, on taking over community democracies, on SeniorCare, on turning our capitol, the people's house into a palace in which he think he rules as a king, not an elected servant.

These are not polite words I'm speaking tonight.

But the stakes are too high, and never in my life in Wisconsin have I seen anything like what Scott Walker is doing to our state.

I have run commercials demanding Scott Walker tell the truth about his aides' law-breaking, and release the 1,000s of e-mails on his secret computer system designed to elude the eyes the Wisconsin people, as Walker campaigned on the taxpayers' dime.

George Grosz - God of War (1940).
Fear of the Other, the people.

If elected governor, I will instruct each and every member of my administration that they are doing the people's work, and not mine.

And if any staff member of mine is ever charged while working in my campaign or administration; I say you cooperate with prosecutors 100 percent or I'll testify myself.

So, I ask again. Scott Walker, release these secret emails and be straight with the Wisconsin people.

And I'll say it again: Scott Walker is lying to you. He's thinks you're too busy to notice and he can get away with it.

WTDY Report—State Documents Show Scott Walker Lied on Anti-Worker Law

Scott Walker testifies before
U.S. House Oversight Committee in April 2011

WTDY's reporter, Dylan Brogan, breaks a major story, obtaining state documents revealing Scott Walker began drafting the anti-workers' bill, Act 10, in November 2010, contradicting his April 2011 testimony before the U.S. Congress and assurances made to the Wisconsin people.

[D]rafting documents obtained by WTDY News from the non-partisan Legislative Reference Bureau reveal that Act 10 was actually being drafted in November, just weeks after Walker was elected governor.

The documents call into question Walker's stated policy rationales on the controversial legislation.

Indeed, as Uppity Wisconsin notes, "This directly contradicts sworn testimony Walker gave to the U.S. House Oversight Committee, where he said that labor unions trying to have their contract approved in a lame-duck December session was the motivation and starting point for the creation of Act 10."

Walker says leveling with Wisconsin people is a distraction

Scott Walker on motorcycle at Operation Freedom
event. Walker's personal aides whom he appointed
stole from funds meant for veterans and their families.
Walker won't offer comment though, calling
explanations to the Wisconsin people a distraction.

Scott Walker's responses to demands that he come clean on the John Doe investigation, and Wisconsin's losing the most jobs in the nation under his watch are repulsive.

Tom Barrett demands Walker release the campaign e-mails from the secret system illegally run out of Walker's Milwaukee county executive's office. Walker refuses, and says the demand is a "distraction." Not even Richard Nixon thought to show such contempt for the Americans he served. Nixon lied, but at least he addressed the question. But not Scott Walker.

Jobs

As Wisconsin has lost the most jobs in the country, Walker said recently, "Spread the message, the facts and the truth, because the truth is on our side."

Check the truth below.

Criminal probe

Even as Walker's propaganda outlet unjustly criticizes a John Doe investigator for his wife's putting up a recall Scott Walker sign in the family yard, DA John Chisholm offered an open, convincing response of his colleague in a letter displayed below. The letter supporting constitutional freedoms ought to be read by every Republican appointed by Walker. Don't hold your breath.

Registered Business Entities Down in Wisconsin at DFI

Scott Walker's extravagant promise to create 250,000 jobs and 10,000 new businesses is a broken promise.

As one indicator among many, new Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) data does nothing to promote Walker's making good on his promises.

Data at the Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) show a new loss in business entities registered at DFI. (Umhoefer, MJS)

Business law attorneys advise that the liability shields in business entities that register with the DFI—such as service corporations and limited liability companies (LLCs)—are attractive to the formation of new businesses, thus the statistic of a net loss of new businesses registered at the DFI is a negative sign for Scott Walker's grand promise of a new economy "open for business," as coupled with Wisconsin's job loss leading the nation.

Many business entities are registered at DFI for purposes other than the immediate start-up of a new business, such as registering the name of a new entity for future concerns that would not interfere or conflict with existing business interests.

Turns out targeting the working class, local communities and education is not the boon for business that Walker says.

Many Dem Voters Fleeing to Falk after Walker Head Feint

Kathleen Falk

As Scott Walker floods the airwaves with anti-Tom Barrett ads, many are wondering why he presumes to know the will of Wisconsin voters he deceived last year.

No one knows who is going to show up today at the polls, or for whom voters are casting their lot.

But many, out of concern of electing the strongest general-election candidate to knock off Walker, are seeing the anti-Barrett commercials [unfair and inaccurate though they be] and considering if a 14-year executive like Kathleen Falk might be the tougher Walker foe. Maybe this is what the GOP wants.

After living as a constituent for all of Falk's tenure, I can tell you that when addressing Falk with policy disagreements, few walk away without feeling they have encourntered a mind able to repeat back objections to the satisfaction of the speaker.

Policy is made from there. And the results lead the state in every category voters care about.

Republicans may think they are being clever, but if the GOP wants Falk as a general election foe, the Party proudly off-the-bend will regret getting what it wished for.

Students Can Vote in June 5 Recall Election

As students finish classes for the year, remember that YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO VOTE in Wisconsin for the Recall Election (Tuesday June 5). Moving out after May 8, but before June 5, you can still vote at your college address. Don't let Republicans stop you from voting.

By the ACLU of Wisconsin

◦STUDENTS CAN VOTE IN WISCONSIN. Under Wisconsin law, as a student (including out-of-state students), you can choose to have your voting residence either at your college/university address or as your family/parents’ home address. You can vote in Wisconsin in the June 5 Recall Elections even if you’re going out of state or away for the summer, as long as you consider Wisconsin to be your voting residence and intend to return here. (Of course, students can only vote once, in ONE place!)

STUDENTS WHO CONSIDER FAMILY/PARENTS’ HOME THEIR VOTING RESIDENCE: If you prefer to vote in your family or parents’ home district, (and your family has lived at that address for more than 28 days before Election Day), you can register and vote in the Recall Election at the voting location for your family home. Election Day registration is still available.

STUDENTS WHO CONSIDER COLLEGE THEIR VOTING RESIDENCE: If you are moving after May 8 and before June 5, you can register and vote at your polling place based on where you are living before May 8. If you’re just moving within the same city, you can even go on June 5 and vote in person at the polling place that corresponds with the address or dorm you lived in before May 8.

◦STUDENTS CAN VOTE EARLY AND IN PERSON IN LATE MAY. Students (including students moving after May 8 and before June 5) can register and cast an “early absentee” ballot at the clerk’s office in the place they live for school before leaving for summer vacation. Early absentee voting at clerks’ offices will be during the week of May 21 and the week of May 28. Some clerks’ offices will be open Memorial Day weekend – call your clerk for hours and details. Clerks list: gab.wi.gov/clerks/directory.

◦STUDENTS CAN GET AN ABSENTEE BALLOT IN THE MAIL. Students who are moving after May 8 and before June 5 can register to vote where they live before May 8, fill out an absentee ballot request form, and ask the clerk to mail you the absentee ballot at the address you’ll be at in late May/ early June. For your ballot safety, contact your clerk directly for a ballot request and mail your absentee ballot back so that the clerk RECEIVES is by June 5.

◦TO REGISTER TO VOTE, HAVE PROOF OF YOUR ADDRESS. To register, bring a document with your name and voting address: a university photo ID along with a university fee receipt or list of dorm residents; driver’s license; state ID; recent utility bill (electric, cell, phone, cable, etc.); lease; bank statement; pay check; employer ID card; or government document or check.

◦YOU DO NOT NEED PHOTO ID TO VOTE IN WISCONSIN for the Recall Election. But, if you have a Wisconsin driver’s license or state ID, bring it, so you can write your ID number on the voter registration card. (If you don’t have a license or ID, you’ll just write the last four digits of your social security number on the registration card).

Questions or problems? The ACLU of Wisconsin and other groups will be part of Election Protection on June 5. Call us on Election Day at 1-866-OUR-VOTE. Like the Wisconsin Election Protection Facebook page or follow @EPWisco on Twitter to share your stories, questions and concerns!

The Jobs Data That Will Kill Scott Walker's Campaign

Wisconsin is dead-last in job loss under Scott Walker. It's not working, and Walker will have an easier political time pardoning veterans' money-embezzling Tim Russell than explaining Wisconsin's losing the most jobs of any state in the last year. This table below is shocking. The only statistically significant decrease over the past year in the number of workers employed is in Wisconsin—losing 23,900 jobs.

How can Wisconsin’s unemployment rate continue to go down while the number of employed also goes down? Simple. The workforce is shrinking. People are bailing out. They are leaving the state, or finding jobs in neighboring states and commuting, or retiring earlier than planned to protect pensions. Many have run out their unemployment benefits and have given up looking for work, so they aren’t counted.

By Giles Goat Boy

The state's Department of Workforce Development actually released the Wisconsin job numbers yesterday* so we already knew Wisconsin had lost 4,500 jobs, most of them in the private sector. Now we know how Wisconsin compares to the rest of the states. In short, Wisconsin's economy is going down the toilet. It's one thing to lose jobs when the whole country is experiencing a major recession. It's quite another to continue shedding jobs after most of the country has shown small but sustained growth for two years.

*The Secretary of the DWD waited until after Scott Walker's photo op at a Brookfield, Wisconsin factory yesterday morning before issuing a comically absurd press release (which hid the job losses on page 2.)

This table is the most shocking of all. The only statistically significant decrease over the past year in the number of workers employed is in Wisconsin—losing 23,900 jobs.

So, this morning I have the radio on and I hear an economist from the University of Wisconsin barely acknowledge that taking hundreds of dollars a month out of the paychecks of tens of thousands of public employees might have an impact on the economy, but that the real problem is the "uncertainty."

Madison TV anchor gets death threat over signing recall petition against Scott Walker

Tony Galli of WKOW TV (Madison) reports on the Madison Police report dated March 29, 2012 indicating a phone caller made a death threat to anchor Rob Starbuck of WISC TV (Madison) for Starbuck's reported signing of the petition to recall Gov. Scott Walker.

This continues a pattern of death threats, harassment and assaults made against the recall volunteers, now extended to people who signed the recall petition. Violent and unhinged.

The report reads that an "anonymous male caller" unleashed a "verbal tirade" to the phone receptionist and states Starbuck "should be wearing a bulletproof vest, better yet he should be wearing it on his head."

The receptionist said she was"disturbed" by the incident, the report reads, and advised her colleagues of the phone call and threat.

Further, the receptionist guessed that the suspect (the caller) is "male, approximately 50 to 60 year-old."

This seriously sounds like my neighbor a recall volunteer and I encountered in December on Richmond Drive in Fitchburg, who lives a few miles from WISC TV.

From Total Recall Weekend and the Few Mad Republicans on the occasional fury that anyone dare recall Scott Walker.

One such Republican—angry and red-faced—who lives on Richmond Drive in Fitchburg, screamed at us this Sunday morning, 'You shouldn't be here doing this. You have no right. What are your names?'

His screaming, literally, continued, as we were leaving and his wife pulled him into the house, in a scene one guesses is played out often.

Our neighbor, for real, has something wrong with him, and matches the age and instability of the guy who called in the death threat. No other evidence connects him to the crime.

Walker Trolls for Support at NRA Convention

Scott Walker - Criminal ringleader

At the NRA convention, Scott Walker received the Harlon B. Carter Legislative Achievement Award, "honoring him for signing concealed weapon and castle doctrine laws."

Walker must be very proud, not too proud to ask for help.

From MJS:

"I have become a target. That's why I am asking for your help." ...

He said his opponents "have had thousands of people bused into our state. People ask me, 'How do you put up with it?' " Walker said. "For every person like that, 10 people come up to me and say, 'We are praying for you, governor.'" (O'Neil, April 13, 2012)

--- It's early, but I think that would make it 10,000s of people who have walked up to Scott Walker to say they are praying for him.

Ripon now votes blue, once Republican Party hub

Ripon, Wisconsin is the birthplace of the Republican Party; but now has transformed into a blue area as the GOP has moved away from its roots into statist radicalism.

Julia Zhu and Alexandra Chachkevitch have the story.

Meanwhile Scott Walker's criminal rise to power being investigated by the John Doe probe has now seen the new Walker surrogates' line that the probe is a witch hunt (notwithstanding the immunity deals and guilty pleads already entered) joined by the first such piece in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Scott Walker and Republicans Target Women

Update II: "Not even a month has gone by since Georgia Republican Terry England compared women to cattle, and now, RNC Chairman Reince Preibus has gone even lower than that."

Update: Salon Magazine asks: Did Scott Walker just give Obama an opening to drive an even bigger wedge between women and the GOP?

What is it with Republicans and their hatred of women?

It's part misogyny, part political calculation of its religious base.

In Wisconsin, the Republicans are sticking to the national calculation that the religiosity of the GOP base will bring victory at the polls, and the hell with women in the name of 'religious freedom.'

Examples of the GOP war on women in Wisconsin and across the nation abound (see some late-breaking examples below):

The White House and the U.S. DoJ are hitting back.

Here's a partial list of the latest GOP assaults on women.

• GOP U.S. Congress blocks the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)
• Scott Walker signed into law a ban on abortion coverage through policies as part of a health insurance exchange to be created under the federal health care reform law starting in 2014 (the only exceptions would be in cases of rape, incest or medical necessity); and a bill requiring women seeking abortions to undergo a physical exam and consult with a doctor alone, away from her friends and family, in order to make sure she isn't "being pressured into the decision." Doctors who break the law could be charged with a felony. (Mills) No support from friends or family, say Republicans.
• In a party-line vote Walker and Republicans repeal the Wisconsin Equal Pay Law

From Emily Mills:

Rep. Christine Sinicki and a list of lawmakers released the following statement:

By signing these bills into law, Gov. Walker has opened up another front in the Republican war on women. The governor has made it clear that he believes women do not deserve equal pay for equal work, that women cannot be trusted to make their own health care decisions and that the government should be dictating the curriculum to local school districts.

Federal Judge finds Scott Walker's assault on workers unconstitutional

FDR signs the Wagner Act in 1935

Update: Federal Judge Partially Strikes Down Wisconsin Act 10, the Anti-Collective Bargaining Bill - "... in a clear victory for the public-sector unions in Wisconsin, the onerous recertification and anti-dues check off provisions, which again only applied to non-public safety employees, were enjoined on both equal protection and First Amendment grounds. The court found absolutely no connection between the Walker Administration’s purported justifications for treating these two groups of public employees differently and the need for these two punitive provisions."

"The Labor Relations Act now forbids an employer to say to a laborer: 'Give up your union or give up your job,'" said the great jurist, Robert H. Jackson in 1939. "... Are our great constitutional guarantees in danger? The answer really lies with the people themselves. Civil rights are pretty generally safe except in periods of widespread emotional instability. In such times there are always those who, either because they lack balance themselves or because they see an opportunity to exploit the anxiety of others, institute scares and make drives to save the country from exaggerated dangers by suppressing free speech, or censoring free press, or punishing free opinion."

Jackson was U.S. Solicitor General at the time of this national town hall and had the idea that law and politics ought be the sphere of the American public: Open and public, or civil rights will die.

Jackson could have been speaking to Scott Walker, J.B. Van Hollen and the rest of the GOP regime who concocted the law and after law for cynical, partisan purposes, and even admitted so. See videos of State Sen. Scott Fitzgerald and Walker below. Repeatedly, Walker cried crisis and danger, and used fear to ram through an anti-citizen agenda, with Walker supporters harassing Wisconsin volunteers.

“Today’s ruling affirms Governor Walker and Legislative Republicans once again overreached in their attack on public workers’ rights to belong to a union. This is a tremendous victory for public workers and the rule of law. These abuses of power should have no place in our public policy decisions. The court has affirmed these were political decisions in an attempt to bust unions, not sound public policy,” said State Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison).

Scott Walker has a different notion than Justice Jackson on civil rights; mocking and ridiculing them, and bragging about collusion with Attorney General Van Hollen, and using working families' livelihoods as political fodder.

"The other thing is I’ve got layoff notices ready. We put out the at-risk notices. We’ll announce Thursday, and they’ll go out early next week. And we’ll probably get 5 to 6,000 state workers will get at-risk notices for layoffs. We might ratchet that up a little bit, you know," said Walker in his infamous taped phone conversation before ramming through Act 10.

It comes as great comfort that U.S. District Judge William M. Conley rules in Wisconsin Education Association Council et al v. Scott Walker et al (Case: 3:11-cv-00428-wmc; U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin) that Act 10, the so-called Budget Repair Bill, is a violation of union members' First Amendment rights.

"[U]nions engage -- indeed, one of their core functions is to engage -- in speech," writes Justice Conley.

Though the Republican Party thought that it could pick and choose which union members' First Amendment rights to violate, the Court disagreed.

"So long as the State of Wisconsin continues to afford ordinary certification and dues deductions to mandatory public safety unions with sweeping bargaining rights, there is no rational basis to deny those rights to voluntary general unions with severely restricted bargaining rights," writes Judge Conley.

"Wisconsin citizens have long known Gov. Walker's attack on workers was not honest and today's court ruling shows his attack was not legal," said a statement from former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, a Democrat running against Walker. (Bruce Vielmetti and Patrick Marley. MJS)

GOP leader Fitzgerald expanded on Falk's assessment on Fox News last year, saying busting unions will help the GOP defeat President Obama: "If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you’re going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin," said Fitzgerald.

Nothing about saving tax-payers' money; and all about a corrupt brand of politics that has seen Scott Walker's closest aides convicted and facing multiple felonies in a criminal investigation of Walker's campaign while Walker tries to stall the investigation in hopes of surviving the recall election.

Walker's signature assault on civil rights is under countetattack by those dedicated to the rule of law, and his legal and political malfeasance is only just beginning to be revealed some 14 months into office.

From Wisconsin State AFL-CIO

“Gov. Walker’s extreme attacks on public sector workers has, in part, been reversed by the court of law today and found in violation of the U.S. constitution,” explained Phil Neuenfeldt, President of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. “This proves that Gov. Walker rammed through his radical and secret agenda without regard to the U.S. constitution, the rule of law, or to what is right and fair for Wisconsin families. There is still much to be done to reverse the harm that Gov. Walker has done to nurses, teachers, snow plow drivers and other public workers. The fight to fully restore public employee’s voices on the job and a strong middle class for Wisconsin continues.”

“This is a better day for public sector workers but unfortunately does not fully restore the ability of public employees to have a meaningful voice in the workplace so that they can speak out on behalf of the communities they serve,” said Stephanie Bloomingdale, Secretary-Treasurer of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. “Limiting collective bargaining, as Scott Walker has done, is unjust and un-American. The fight to reclaim Wisconsin and restore the rights of working people to collectively bargain continues.”

While this is a step in the right direction, there is still much work to be done to ensure that all working families have the right to collectively bargain. We must stand together until justice is restored to all Wisconsin workers.

In Solidarity,

---

One, Two Punch Knocks out GOP Ethics Complaints

Ernest A. Canning and Edward A. Fallone each offer devastating rebuttals to the current Republican-Rick Essenberg-Media Trackers-yada, yada attacks on any judge, institution, journalist that has the gall to exercise her rights under Article XIII, section 11 of the Wisconsin Constitution and call for a recall election, or simply calls for the Rule of Law.

Check out the links to Ernest A. Canning and Edward A. Fallone.

Game, set and match.

Like Mordecai Lee, journalism should begin to treat Rick Essenberg as a paid GOP mouth piece with a disdain for facts and the law, as is his right. But Essenberg is a flack and not a 'legal expert' as he is often described.

At some point, journalism may even point out as a fact that voting is extremely well-protected in Wisconsin in the Constitution as a foundation of the state. Even if Essenberg and the GOP take the contrary view.

Irene Captain on Scott Walker

Irene Captain - Fighting against Scott Walker

Irene Captain is a typical World War II mother.

Her late husband, Wesley John Captain, came home from Normandy, liberating a concentration camp, and serving in Patton's Third Army. He said, as family lore has it: "I have seen enough death, now I want to surround myself with life."

The Captains did just that, with nine children in Wisconsin Rapids.

Now, Irene Captain who proudly notes her service as a seniors’ activist, working on the legislative committee of AARP and lobbying hard for the initial establishment of SeniorCare which began in 2002, has had enough of Scott Walker.

"We need SeniorCare, it works, so why destroy it?"

Irene fights for her 11 great grandchildren, like Lily

Irene Captain signed the petition to recall Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch.

Reached this weekend in Rapids, Irene said, "You all keep up the fight. He's [Scott Walker] against everyone except the Koch brothers. He never was any good, and I don't trust a word he says. I'm going to keep voting against him."

Irene, who has lived some 64 years in Wisconsin Rapids and has friends and family members which span the political spectrum, says she has never seen anything like the dishonesty of Scott Walker.

"I can't even watch him on TV any more. If he believes something, then why doesn't he come out and say it?" said Irene. "He's a sneak thief, and a liar. Bless your heart for fighting against him"

Thank you, Irene; will keep up the fight.