Scott Walker, Sen. Ron Johnson Are Amoral

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin)
Protector of rape and sexual battery

Update: See So, Just How Upset Are The Republicans With Bill Kramer? and Kramer cover-up a telling glimpse into right-wing world and Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson has a history of protecting institutions where sex assault is concerned.

Wisconsin Republicans are holding firm against launching expulsion proceedings against this serial predator, now finally facing two criminal charges of sexual assault.
---
Facing Constitutional obstacles against GOP schemes obstructing Wisconsin voters, Scott Walker announced he would call lawmakers into a special session to pass another photo voter ID law before his reelection bid in November.

Walker called a photo voter ID law the most "pressing" election-related issue Wisconsin faces. (Spicuzza and DeFour. WSJ)

Walker also suggested the Constitutional guarantee of the right to vote should be conditioned on his  view of what the majority of Wisconsin citizens believe, an unusual doctrine on Wisconsin Suffrage.

Plumbing the depths of Republican politics, we learn preventing people from voting is surpassed in venality by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) who knew of and did nothing to stop or even report to police a sexual assault victim of serial perpetrator, Rep. Bill Kramer (R-Waukesha), three years ago (Stein, Marley and Bice. MJS). The woman was an aide to Johnson at the time.

Even as two other recent sexual assault victims of Kramer's have come to light in the last few weeks, Wisconsin Republicans refuse to commence expulsion proceedings to remove the former State Assembly Majority Leader.

Protecting sexual assault perpetrators and actually injuring their victims is a habit of Ron Johnson's.

Uppity Wisconsin reports "when Johnson was running for U.S. Senate (the) purportedly family-values, law-and-order Republican testified against the Wisconsin Child Victims Act, which would have eliminated the statute of limitations on lawsuits brought by victims of Catholic priest sexual abuse. The measure failed," because of Republican opposition protecting the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and its internal molestation protection outfit.

Back to Scott Walker.

Scott Walker did his worst in late March by signing a Republican bill obstructing Mesothelioma cancer victims, many of whom are veterans.

Reports Eoin Cottrell:

Advocacy groups representing over 100,000 Wisconsin veterans insisted the state Legislature amend a bill that will now affect thousands of veterans suffering from mesothelioma, according to Jason Johns, executive director of the Wisconsin Asbestos Victims Network.

Gov. Scott Walker signed the bill Thursday [March 27] that will create more hurdles for Wisconsinites seeking compensation for mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer contracted after repeated exposure to asbestos that disproportionately affects veterans.

Veterans make up 8 percent of the population but account for an estimated 30 percent of all mesothelioma deaths, according to the Wisconsin Military Order of the Purple Heart.

I guess if Scott Walker's former top aide and appointees embezzle from veterans, Walker's logic leads to the conclusion he signs legislation inflicting misery onto veterans suffering from mesothelioma cancer. That's a rule of inference I must have missed.

If you want to know to know how Democratic candidate for governor Mary Burke feels about all this, Burke spokesman Joe Zepecki is sticking to his innovative communications strategy of going dark in the apparent hope the campaign's silence will somehow obliterate Scott Walker's reelection bid.

"League of Women Vultures," Says Koch brothers-funded Wisconsin Club for Growth

Updated - The GOP project of obstructing Americans voters in disfavor with the Republican Party has for years come with the GOP attack on campaign finance laws meant to halt corruption in government.

It was no surprise to read that African-Americans, Latinos, students, Jews and gays are hit with bigoted jokes and disparaging comments behind closed Republican doors.

Such voters tend to vote non-Republican, thus are illegitimate to the contemporary Republican powers that be, a group that now openly boasts about its distaste for non-whites.

The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, founded by the suffragists who fought for 75 years to win the right to vote for women, are known as "Vultures" by the Wisconsin Club for Growth which funds GOP candidates.

Vultures. [Wisconsin Club for Growth source code reads: "<meta property="og:title" content="League of Women Vultures"/>."

The text of an e-mail sent by Melanie G. Ramey of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin illustrates the disdain Scott Walker and his allies have for those committed to universal suffrage and a government of the people.

By Melanie G. Ramey

We don’t often write about other organizations, particularly when we disagree with many of their positions. However, that has not stopped the Club for Growth from writing about us a number of times. An organization with ties to the Koch brothers, Club for Growth (CFG) is currently under investigation for possible campaign finance violations. It sent out an ugly April 2 email with the not-very-original subject line “League of Women Vultures.” Really.

The email took issue with a League of Women Voters® of Wisconsin statement objecting to Governor Walker’s signing of a law banning evening and weekend hours for early voting.

The CFG email reads: “Demonstrating that it doesn’t know or doesn’t care what it’s saying, the League of Women Voters said, “If lawmakers truly want to be fair for voters across the state, they will scrap this regressive law as soon as possible.””

Their snide comment notwithstanding, CFG did quote exactly what the League said. We know that by treating all municipalities equally the new law does not treat all voters equally. Each municipality is allowed one early voting site, regardless of its population. It’s hard to ensure “one person, one vote” when, for example, Milwaukee election officials will have only 9 seconds to process each early ballot under the new restrictions.

This week the Governor signed more bad election bills into law. One will allow election observers to stand as close as three feet from the table in our polling places, where they will be hovering over the voting process, compromising voters’ privacy and adding to the stress of our local election officials.

Another new law will make it virtually impossible for many qualified citizens to register to vote, including students and anyone else who does not have a document such as a Wisconsin driver’s license or bank statement with their own name and current address.

The Governor’s signing statement glossed over the impact of this restrictive new law, stating only that it requires clerks to record the type of document submitted as proof of residence. Either the Governor didn't read the amended bill he signed or he wasn't proud of signing it.

Don’t be fooled. These new laws signed by Governor Walker are extreme. Founded by the suffragists who fought for 75 years to win the right to vote for women, the League of Women Voters® knows suppression when we see it. While our 17 local Leagues will educate and assist voters in complying with the new restrictions, we are also looking into all possible ways to reverse these unfair laws, including legal action.

Suit Against Voter ID Law Hits Obstruction of Military Veterans by GOP

Oh, you're a veteran; 'get lost,' say Republicans

Plaintiff Carl Ellis, a homeless black Milwaukee veteran wants to vote in the future, but if Republicans have their way Ellis and his military service can take a hike because Ellis, in GOP land, has no right to vote!

In an amended post-trial brief in the federal suit Frank v. Walker Post-trial brief challenging Wisconsin's Voter ID Law, civil rights advocates hit Scott Walker and the GOP for "Arbitrarily and Unreasonably Burden(ing) Voting Rights of Veterans ... ."

The amended brief was filed last month.

The brief reads in part:

74
C. Act 23 Arbitrarily and Unreasonably Burdens Voting Rights of Veterans and Technical College Students (Claims/Classes 4 and 6)

Voters are entitled to be free of arbitrary state action, and burdens imposed on the right to vote must be balanced against the asserted state interests.  It is well-settled that arbitrary and therefore “‘invidious’ distinctions cannot be enacted without a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.” Williams v. Rhodes, 393 U.S. 23, 30 (1968).

The burden imposed by Act 23 on veterans and technical college student is simply not  “necessary,” Anderson, 460 U.S. at 789, or justified by any “important regulatory interest[],” Burdick, 504 U.S. at 434. The state has articulated no rational basis, much less a necessary or important interest, for refusing to accept secure photo ID issued by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs when it accepts ID issued by the U.S. military, when both are federal documents with voters’ names and photographs, and when both may lack expiration dates. Similarly, no interest was proffered for seeking to block the use of photo ID from Wisconsin’s two year technical colleges, when those IDs have identical indicia of reliability (name, photo, expiration date within two years from date of issuance) to IDs from other Wisconsin colleges.
1. Act 23 Arbitrarily Excludes the Use of VA ID for Voting (Claim/Class 6) After leaving the military, many veterans receive secure VA IDs, with the veterans’ names and photographs, that are used for matters such as obtaining health care from this federal agency. For years Ellis had only VA ID, and Davis and Newcomb still have only VA ID. States like Indiana allow voters to use VA ID, and Kennedy recommended that Act 23 include VA ID, but the law does not do so. (Sec. I.B.2.)

Act 23’s exclusion of VA ID places severe burdens on veterans who have only VA ID, many of whom, Defendants know, are homeless or marginally housed. (Id.) This includes Ellis, who struggled to get a DMV-issued ID for nearly two years, making numerous trips to multiple agencies to get his birth certificate, and ID. (Sec. I.C.3.) Davis, who is unemployed, and Newcomb, a housekeeper also caring for his children who were involved in a serious accident, have tried but not succeeded in getting DMV-issued ID. (Secs. I.A, I.C.1, I.C.2.a.)

At trial, Defendants articulated no state interest, let alone an “important” one, in refusing to accept this form of secure federal ID. Nor did the State articulate any interest in forcing these veterans to expend time and money obtaining a different photo ID to vote, much less a sufficient interest to justify this burden. See Burdick, 504 U.S. at 434 (citing Anderson, 460 U.S. at 788). In prior briefs, the State hypothesized that the lack of an expiration date on VA ID might justify the exclusion. (Dkt. 38 at 21.) But Act 23 authorizes the use of other forms of photo ID without expiration dates, including some military and tribal ID cards. (Secs. I.B.1.d,e.) It also allows the use of DMV-issued ID with 16-year-old photos. (Sec. I.B.1.a.) Thus the exclusion of VA ID has no evident or articulated purpose other than imposing an unnecessary burden on some veterans, or keeping them from voting. Defendants therefore have violated the Equal Protection Clause.