Wisconsin Senate Republicans Ban Voter Registration Drives

Update: See GOP Still Tampering with Our Democracy by State Senator Julie Lassa.

Wisconsin Republicans really, really would like it if you would not vote. Leave voting to the Republicans.

Republicans' latest anti-voting rights bill is Senate Bill 295, passed along a party-line vote yesterday.

The bill would "(eliminate) the position and responsibilities of special registration deputies," halting voter registration drives of disfavored citizens, (Legislative Reference Bureau).

SB 295 is being fast-tracked to the state assembly for passage and eventual signing into law by Scott Walker.

Both Wisconsin legislative chambers are gerrymandered to elect Republicans.

Since gaining power in the 2010 mid-term election, Republicans have passed numerous anti-voting laws designed to obstruct minorities, the poor and younger voters from casting votes, and reshaping Wisconsin elections to benefit Republicans.

Scott Walker's Voter Obstruction Efforts Highlight Anti-democratic Sentiments

The Republican Party and Scott Walker in particular have long made voter obstruction a major policy objective.

Through cutting early voting, photo voter ID, gerrymandering, and other work on behalf of corporations funneling anti-democratic bills through ALEC, (NBC News) Walker has become a front-man in Wisconsin to stop those politically opposed to him from voting, with a particular animus for ethnic minorities. (McGillis, TNR)

The Republican Party's war against voting is a nation-wide effort, but Walker has taken the lead in Wisconsin for years using public policy and campaign appeals as a means to divide and conquer disfavored citizens.

A grotesque effort, but conquering citizens has a long and sordid history known in the 20th century as fascism.

Walker's political allies are featured in yesterday's New York Times Magazine in a cover piece on the 50-year campaign to roll back the Voting Rights Act. (Rutenberg, New York Times)

Stopping black and brown folks from voting, this is the America Scott Walker wants, where Walker with his hands out to special interest money is considered among the few proper activities.

In 2012 the stakes were high, in 2015-16 the stakes are higher and Walker remains an inadequate personality, and a pathological liar still in fear of facing the Wisconsin people, but scheming to rob them of their rights.

NYT's Account of Scott Walker and a Lie

Dan Kaufman's exposé in the
New York Times of Scott Walker
and his lies to workers, and Walker's
concerted attack on working families.

I looked ... at [Scott Walker], and I said, ... 'If you can tell me that right-to-work will not come on your desk, then I will take you for your word.' He looked me in the eyes, and he said, 'It will not make it to my desk.'

Updated - A prominent Scott Walker flaw is Walker's condition of a pathological liar, a man without a conscience. (John Dean, Verdict) [Another illustration of Walker's pathological tendency to lie: Prime Minister David Cameron disputes an assertion by Scott Walker Cameron spoke ill of U.S. President Obama, after Walker made up a story about Cameron in his overheated talk to a roomful of Republican donors (Miller, Time Magazine]

In Dan Kaufman's explosive and ominous exposé in the New York Times Magazine of the betrayal by Scott Walker of the Wisconsin working class, Walker's deceit and lack of a conscience come to life.

The ease with which people as Nixon and Scott Walker lie and deceive is breathtaking, and is now on record as fact for the 2016 presidential campaign.

Kaufman's description of Walker stands out with an implicit warning that Scott Walker wants to take national the Koch brothers and ALEC's rightwing legislative agenda that Walker used, deceitfully, against the people of Wisconsin:

Writes Kaufman:

Last fall, [Terry McGowan, the president of [International Union of Operating Engineers. Local 139], a statewide union of 9,000 heavy-­machinery operators] met with [Scott] Walker, who was seeking a contribution and another endorsement for governor, at a small campaign office in Wauwatosa, outside Milwaukee. "I looked across the table at him, and I said, ''We are both God-­fearing men,'" McGowan told me. "'If you can tell me that right-to-work will not come on your desk, then I will take you for your word.' He looked me in the eyes, and he said, 'It will not make it to my desk.' He was looking for a contribution, and I was looking for a commitment. We both got what we came for. He kept his, and I lost mine." ...

In early March, I visited Dave Poklinkoski, the president of Local 2304, an electricians’ union, at his office in Madison, where he was drawing up a right-to-work-­compliant union contract. "Divide and conquer, it works," Poklinkoski said. "It works real well." He dug out his iPad from under a pile of papers and pulled up an editorial cartoon by Mike Konopacki that showed a bloodied Terry McGowan, the Local 139 president, with a sword in his back, the hilt and handle in the shape of Walker’s head, labeled "R-T-W."

Scott Walker Does Not Know as Much as Jeopardy's Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings

Readers who DVR Jeopardy (Sony Corp) know last week featured Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings in the Battle of the Decades.

Rutter and Jennings are amazing minds, dominating this American gaming institution like Roberto Duran dominated the lightweight division in boxing in the 1970s and, I can't think of another example.

To hear Scott Walker, he simply does not have an immense general knowledge base rivaling Rutter and Jennings,' and doesn't know his mind as well, what with god inserting some many thoughts.

Part of what make these two millionaires so great at Jeopardy is not just that they know so much and are fast in clicking in on a question.

Rutter and Jennings also know their minds with striking clarity, often clicking in to be first and then voicing the correct answer (question) on occasions when they didn't know the answer when they clicked, but knew the answer would come to them fast.

This came to mind because Saturday the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorialized against dark money and asked Scott Walker if he knew about a well-publicized $700,000 contribution from Gogebic Taconite (GTac) LLC, a mining company that wrote a Republican mining bill before proposing its massive project that would devastate a pristine area in Iron and Ashland counties with North America's largest open pit mine.

Writes the Journal-Sentinel:

Gov. Scott Walker says he had nothing to do with soliciting a $700,000 donation from the mining company Gogebic Taconite for Wisconsin Club for Growth during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections. Asked whether he was aware of the donation, he responded with "not to my knowledge." (Which means exactly what?)

It means, if Scott Walker is to be believed, that Scott Walker simply does not know to his knowledge if GTac gave a $700,000 contribution to Club for Growth as Walker urged that all contributions be laundered through Club for Growth, a pro-Scott Walker group directed by Walker's campaign adviser.

If Walker loses in November, he can forget Jeopardy.

Walker is programmed by his attorneys and is attempting to be reelected without answering a question about the fact Walker was at the center of a criminal scheme placing him in criminal jeopardy, but we should give Walker a break about not being Rutter or Jennings.