UW-Madison Chancellor Addresses UW Board of Regents with Words Aimed at Faculty, Researchers, Students and other UW System Advocates, as GOP Disinformation Campaign Amps Up
Updated - In words intended to assuage allies and use assets to pressure Republican legislators and Scott Walker, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank advised UW System regents Friday proposed legislation criminalizing fetal tissue research imperils the University.
"This is a direct hit," Blank said. "This is a threat to one of our strongest areas in terms of our reputation in the sciences." (Herzog, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
The vast majority of the UW System Board of Regents has been ideologically vetted and appointed by the Evangelical Scott Walker. (Mal Contends)
Blank's escalation—following her halting public advocacy—is part of a massive, behind-the-scenes effort involving advocates for the entire UW System is every key Wisconsin legislative district.
Republicans are countering with their own disinformation campaign, pretending to an expertise in fetal cell-stem cell research—telling policymakers and opinion-makers on background that the bill by the religious right on "body parts," to borrow from Rep. Jacque and Rep. Joel Kleefisch (R-Oconomowoc), and inserted into their proposed amendment to the Wisconsin criminal code—does not apply to a wide line of research and investigation at UW-Madison, which is of course a lie.
Other levers to derail the research-killing legislation are being utilized, even if the subtle-to-silent PR strategy of the UW System administration baffles and frustrates many. The American corporate left has acted, and reportedly stands ready.
Many still ask, why hasn't the UW been aggressively pointing out that Republicans are standing for cancer, not fighting against it? Have you ever known or are you now a family traumatized by cancer and other ailments that stem cells could be used to treat and cure in the future? Most every family has.
Risky Strategy
This is a risky strategy for the UW System during a year when Scott Walker began his run for the presidency extolling his 'taking on' public employees, public education, community control and workers' wages.
Moreover, students facing massive student loan debt since Ronald Reagan began his attack on higher education some 24 years ago, can not be counted on to sing the University System's praises, much less employ pressure across the state on behalf of UW centers. (Salon) (Dissent Magazine)
The cat is out of the bag one of nation's premier public research institutions is under attack in a state where rural and white-district Wisconsin Republicans and Scott Walker function as surrogates for rightwing groups such the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Evangelical, anti-science groups across the country now at their apex in the Republican Party.
Since the months and even days directly preceding Walker's formal July 13 announcement for the presidency, Walker has made attacking the University of Wisconsin System and the Wisconsin Idea a centerpiece of his campaign to destroy public education in Wisconsin, which includes a years-long attack on K-12 public education. (Marshall, TPM) (ThinkProgress)
Former Wisconsin State Sen. Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center) [(State Assembly (1983-1991), State Senate (1991 to 2015)]—hailed by some for blowing the whistle on his Republican Party as corrupt and beholden to special interests in 2013-14 as Republicans clung to a 17-16 majority in the senate (Craver, The Capital Times)—decided the most effective strategy for challenging the corruption of Wisconsin Republicans is to quit and take his pension, rather than fight.
"When some think tank comes up with the legislation and tells you not to fool with it, why are you even a legislator anymore? You just sit there and take votes and you’re kind of a feudal serf for folks with a lot of money," said Schultz in an important piece in the Madison Capital Times in 2103
(Craver, "The Last Moderate ..."). That Schultz could have said, 'no,' apparently did not occur to the former legislator.
Prospects
This weekend Scott Walker is in Iowa campaigning, the Badgers football team hosts its first home game and Packers play the Bears on Sunday. One must have priorities.
It is unlikely public attention will be focused on Walker's hollowing out of Wisconsin's public education system and representative democracy this weekend.
Walker now eyes again Wisconsin's public pension system in an effort to bankrupt Wisconsin communities, which remain largely opposed to Walker demanding the end of local municipal control, in another ALEC bill Walker wants to impose onto the state.
In the following weeks, hope for the preservation of the UW System, public education and the effective structure of representative democracy in Wisconsin lies with the 33-member Wisconsin State Senate—more difficult to gerrymander than the 99-member lower house, the State Assembly.
Wisconsin Republicans hold a relatively slim 19-14 majority in the state senate, and an overwhelming 63-36 majority in the state assembly.
Walker, stinging from national criticism questioning his intellect, policy knowledge and ethics, can be counted on take his frustrations out on Wisconsin where his favorable rating has now dipped into the 30s, and sign any legislation which hurts people, impedes science, and degrades the University of Wisconsin-Madison in particular.
"Asked whether the phrase 'cares about people like you' describes Walker,
37 percent say it does, while 59 percent say it does not" in a poll lat month, (Marquette University Law School poll.
On a hopeful note, if ordered by David Koch—who is a champion of efforts to research and cure cancer—and other patrons to back off, Walker's administration will see to it the fetal research-stem cell bill not reach the governor's desk. The "double-high authoritarian" Walker takes orders and often backs down. (Mal Contends) (CounterPunch)
Whether the popular University of Wisconsin System will publicly and fully mobilize is an open question.
Showing posts with label Walker Wisconsin Budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Walker Wisconsin Budget. Show all posts
Sep 12, 2015
Aug 6, 2015
Scott Walker Enters Debate Under Cloud of Criminality
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| Scott Walker still refuses to face Wisconsin people |
With the exception of Gov. Chris Christie (NJ) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) Walker enters tonight's debate with the most unanswered questions on his conduct in office, raising public integrity questions from which Walker has run.
Don't look for tonight's debate moderators, Fox News hosts Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace, to ask Scott Walker the question to which Wallace never received an answer from Walker last year: "Did you have your own private e-mail account?" (Mal Contends) (ThinkProgress)
Walker refused to answer Wallace's question because Walker knew what he did was illegal.
Chris Wallace like the Wisconsin media won't be clamoring for an answer to why Walker was running for governor on an illegal email system on public property and violating Wisconsin's Open Records law he unsuccessfully tried to gut this year. But if Wallace took seriously his profession as a journalist, he would ask Walker the same question. (Mal Contends) (ThinkProgress)
Walker's aborted gutting of the Open Records law earlier this year raises the same issue that Walker's flaunting of the Open Records law raised during Walker tenure as Milwaukee County Executive.
If Milwaukee County workers in Walker's administration (2002-10) were doing nothing wrong, why should they be using a private e-mail account? Did you have your own private e-mail account?
Noted before, Walker used the Milwaukee County Executive's office as a campaign machine for governor because he felt is he was entitled; Walker violated open records law because he felt he was entitled; and Walker won't talk to the press now because he knows as well that he is neck-deep in uncharged crimes.
---
From 2014:
Question from Luke, Green Bay, Wisconsin. -
A simple yes or no question "Did you Governor Walker know of the
secret e-mail system?" Why won't he just answer the question? We are
paying his salary. It is a simple yes-no question.
Answer from Daniel Bice, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
- Why won't he answer the question? My guess: He is
paying his lawyers very good money, and they have told him, "Do not
answer that question."
-- From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Columnist Dan Bice's Online Question and Answer February 2014) (Mal Contends)
Say what your will about Chris Christie, unlike Scott Walker, Christie does not run from questions.
From Chris Wallace last year:
Jul 12, 2015
Scott Walker—Authoritarian and Vindictive Is Now an American Problem
On the eve of Scott Walker's announcement for the presidency from the white citizens' stronghold of Waukesha, Wisconsin (DeFour, Wisconsin State Journal), it's apt that the New York Times runs a preview of a film on Philip Zimbardo's social psychological Stanford Prison Experiment (Murphy, New York Times).
The capacity of 'normal' human beings to inflict sadistic actions and suffering onto fellow human beings had astonished and repulsed thinking human beings, emphatically after the Holocaust and the United States invasion of Vietnam, and social psychologists have studied this phenomena of systematized savagery.
But for Scott Walker (and political allies, such as former governor Tommy Thompson [1987-2001]), demonizing and inflicting suffering onto disfavored citizens have been the vehicle by which these two Wisconsin governors have launched political careers and presidential campaigns.
Assaults on the working-class citizens of Wisconsin abound in Scott Walker's administration: the right to collective bargain; massive cuts for the University of Wisconsin; bans on abortions after 20 weeks, regardless of rape or incest; drug testing for aid recipients; repeated targeting of the city of Milwaukee, maintaining it as the most segregated urban area in the United States; attacking the open records laws; and avoiding and evading the populations' right to ask him questions about any of these policies (Walker has held no listening sessions for any of this legislation, even though none of it was mentioned in his election, recall, or re-election bids).
Super-max prisons, Thompson's vow to make inmates' lives a "living hell," and former State Rep. Walker's (1993-2002) peripatetic legislative push to create harsh prison sentences, expand the criminal code, create the authority to send nonviolent 'offenders' to out-of-state private prisons went on with little opposition from the Wisconsin citizenry or the Democratic Party.
"Walker pushed dozens of proposals in the state house to lengthen criminal penalties, for everything from perjury to privacy invasion to intoxicated boating. In just the 1997–98 legislative session, Walker authored or co-sponsored twenty-seven different bills that either expanded the definition of crimes, increased mandatory minimums for offenders, or curbed the possibility of parole," notes Scott Keyes in The Nation.
Walker openly bragged about his bill, the infamous Truth-in-Sentencing law, which limited early parole, as having come from the corporate bill mill, the American Legislative Exchange Committee.
Scott Walker is the classic "double high authoritarian" who takes pleasure in deceiving and hurting perceived incarnations of the wrong [black] type of people, while also marked by the inclination and "willingness to submit to established authority, (and) their aggressiveness on behalf of that authority" (Dean, part one, CounterPunch and Dean, part two CounterPunch).
To understand Scott Walker is to comprehend the history of Scott Walker's inclination to lie and evade.
As a profile in racism, Scott Walker presents to social psychologists an experiment in how a superstitious, cruel and callow politician with little understanding of public policy can rise to the level of serious discussion of becoming the nominee for a major party for the presidency of the United States.
Now that Walker is in the national arena, the heartless and senseless changes he has wrought in Wisconsin will be exposed to a wider audience and shown to be consonant with twentieth-century fascism and the "double high authoritarianism" discussed by Dean.
The capacity of 'normal' human beings to inflict sadistic actions and suffering onto fellow human beings had astonished and repulsed thinking human beings, emphatically after the Holocaust and the United States invasion of Vietnam, and social psychologists have studied this phenomena of systematized savagery.
But for Scott Walker (and political allies, such as former governor Tommy Thompson [1987-2001]), demonizing and inflicting suffering onto disfavored citizens have been the vehicle by which these two Wisconsin governors have launched political careers and presidential campaigns.
Assaults on the working-class citizens of Wisconsin abound in Scott Walker's administration: the right to collective bargain; massive cuts for the University of Wisconsin; bans on abortions after 20 weeks, regardless of rape or incest; drug testing for aid recipients; repeated targeting of the city of Milwaukee, maintaining it as the most segregated urban area in the United States; attacking the open records laws; and avoiding and evading the populations' right to ask him questions about any of these policies (Walker has held no listening sessions for any of this legislation, even though none of it was mentioned in his election, recall, or re-election bids).
Super-max prisons, Thompson's vow to make inmates' lives a "living hell," and former State Rep. Walker's (1993-2002) peripatetic legislative push to create harsh prison sentences, expand the criminal code, create the authority to send nonviolent 'offenders' to out-of-state private prisons went on with little opposition from the Wisconsin citizenry or the Democratic Party.
"Walker pushed dozens of proposals in the state house to lengthen criminal penalties, for everything from perjury to privacy invasion to intoxicated boating. In just the 1997–98 legislative session, Walker authored or co-sponsored twenty-seven different bills that either expanded the definition of crimes, increased mandatory minimums for offenders, or curbed the possibility of parole," notes Scott Keyes in The Nation.
Walker openly bragged about his bill, the infamous Truth-in-Sentencing law, which limited early parole, as having come from the corporate bill mill, the American Legislative Exchange Committee.
Scott Walker is the classic "double high authoritarian" who takes pleasure in deceiving and hurting perceived incarnations of the wrong [black] type of people, while also marked by the inclination and "willingness to submit to established authority, (and) their aggressiveness on behalf of that authority" (Dean, part one, CounterPunch and Dean, part two CounterPunch).
To understand Scott Walker is to comprehend the history of Scott Walker's inclination to lie and evade.
As a profile in racism, Scott Walker presents to social psychologists an experiment in how a superstitious, cruel and callow politician with little understanding of public policy can rise to the level of serious discussion of becoming the nominee for a major party for the presidency of the United States.
Now that Walker is in the national arena, the heartless and senseless changes he has wrought in Wisconsin will be exposed to a wider audience and shown to be consonant with twentieth-century fascism and the "double high authoritarianism" discussed by Dean.
Jun 24, 2015
Scott Walker Blasted by Conservative UW Profs for Attacks on University
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| Sifting and Winnowing Plaque on Bascom Hill Photo by UW-Madison, University Communications |
Writing in a national political journal, two conservative and long-tenured UW-Madison professors blasted Scott Walker's continued assault on the University of Wisconsin System, singling out Walker's move to eliminate tenure protections from Wisconsin state statutes and the consequences of imperiling academic freedom.
"[W]e’re increasingly worried that in trying to take up another conservative crusade, our governor, Scott Walker, is going to silence the very voices he claims to support," write Donald Downs, professor of political science at UW-Madison and John Sharpless, professor of history UW-Madison write in The Politico.
Downs and Sharpless say, "We harbor strong concerns about Walker’s proposed tenure revisions. Without tenure protections, professors like us who fight for free speech and liberty—values Walker himself espouses—could be even more at risk of being targeted on college campuses for our beliefs ... As leaders of a free speech and liberty movement at UW-Madison that has enjoyed considerable success over the course of the past 20 years, we can attest to the positive effects of tenure for those with conservative and libertarian beliefs."
Conclude Downs and Sharpless: "Standing in front of [the "sifting and winnowing"] Plaque [on Bascom Hill], one can see the state capitol dome less than a mile to the east. But today that very dome casts a long, sinister shadow on the university."
Jun 7, 2015
Scott Walker's Assault on Tenure Draws National Criticism
What's the matter with Wisconsin?
The question is not asked often any more as the answer is apparent: Scott Walker's anti-intellectualism, corruption, and a weak state Democratic Party precisely when Wisconsin needed an innovative, strong opposition to this fundamentalist governor's destructive agenda taken from the ALEC GOP bill mill and the Koch brothers.
Bear in mind Walker is so controlling and ideologically extreme that Walker rescinded his appointment of UW-Platteville student Joshua Inglet to the Board in August 2013 after finding out Inglet signed the Recall Scott Walker petition to show support for his mother who is a teacher.
From an editorial from this weekend's New York Times, Scott Walker's latest attack, sites the foundation of the Badger state: the University of Wisconsin System; aiming at the tenure system in this volley.
This follows Walker's attacks on funding and University's core mission: The Wisconsin Idea. (Mal Contends) (Persson and Bottari, Center for Wisconsin Media and Democracy) [Note: Persson and Bottari broke this story in February 2015]
Walker now has in place a University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents composed of a large majority of politically vetted members dedicated to destroying the very institution they are appointed to safeguard. In May 2017, Walker will have appointed 16 of 18 serving members of the UW System Board of Regents. (Mal Contends)
Used to be the University of Wisconsin-Madison drew 1,000s of applicants from the world-over to study at one of the nation's premier educational institutions and a verdant, cultural oasis in the Midwest.
Scott Walker never liked this state of affairs and is out to destroy an institution that took generations to build.
From the New York Times:
Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal for weakening tenure at Wisconsin’s highly respected state university system and undermining the faculty’s role in campus governance will appeal to conservative voters whose support he needs to win the Republican presidential nomination.
But if this proposal becomes law, it will damage the university, perhaps irreparably. It will make it harder to recruit top-tier faculty members, who have the pick of other institutions that respect academic independence and where they do not have to fear dismissal for taking controversial views or for doing research that might be frowned upon by politicians.
It has become fashionable to portray academia as a haven for people who enjoy job security while others are subject to layoffs and downsizing. But most college instructors are not protected by tenure. According to federal data, only 20.35 percent of instructional faculty at American colleges are full-time, tenure-track workers (down from 45 percent in 1975). Colleges rely heavily on miserably paid part-timers who flee the campus when class is finished so they can get to the next job.
Tenure protections were devised in the mid-20th century to protect academics from political reprisals. Current Wisconsin state law respects this tradition, allowing tenured faculty to be fired for just cause or in financial emergencies.
A committee of state lawmakers last week approved a new proposal that would remove tenure from state law, leaving the matter to the university system’s 18-member Board of Regents, 16 of whom are appointed by the governor with the confirmation of the State Senate. Under the proposal, the board would be able set new, vaguer standards for firing tenured faculty: “when such an action is deemed necessary due to a budget or program decision requiring program discontinuance, curtailment, modification or redirection.” Another provision would weaken the faculty’s voice in policy and personnel decisions.
Faculty members have ample reason to suspect Mr. Walker’s motives. Earlier this year, he issued a budget containing devastating spending cuts that also sought to amend the university’s mission statement to make it sound more like a trade school than a prominent research institution. He backed away from the new language after the state erupted in protest.
The Legislature, which will take up the new proposals later this month, can still reject them. Rubber-stamping them would set the state university on a course that Wisconsinites could regret for decades to come. #
UW System Board of Regents
John Robert Behling - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2012 (Regent Vice President)
Mark J. Bradley - Term expires May 2017
José Delgado - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2014
Tony Evers - Elected as Superintendent of Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
Margaret Farrow - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2013
Michael Grebe, Jr. - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2015
Eve Hall - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2014
Nicolas Harsy - Term expires May 2016
Tim Higgins - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2011
Edmund Manydeeds - Term expires May 2017
Regina Millner - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2012 (Regent President)
Janice Mueller - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2013
Drew Petersen - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2013
Charles Pruitt - Term expires May 2016
Anicka Purath - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2015
José F. Vásquez - Term expires May 2016
Gerald Whitburn - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2011
Andrew Peterson - Reappointed by Scott Walker in 2015.
Peterson is president of the Wisconsin Technical College System Board similarly dominated by Walker appointees.
The question is not asked often any more as the answer is apparent: Scott Walker's anti-intellectualism, corruption, and a weak state Democratic Party precisely when Wisconsin needed an innovative, strong opposition to this fundamentalist governor's destructive agenda taken from the ALEC GOP bill mill and the Koch brothers.
Bear in mind Walker is so controlling and ideologically extreme that Walker rescinded his appointment of UW-Platteville student Joshua Inglet to the Board in August 2013 after finding out Inglet signed the Recall Scott Walker petition to show support for his mother who is a teacher.
From an editorial from this weekend's New York Times, Scott Walker's latest attack, sites the foundation of the Badger state: the University of Wisconsin System; aiming at the tenure system in this volley.
This follows Walker's attacks on funding and University's core mission: The Wisconsin Idea. (Mal Contends) (Persson and Bottari, Center for Wisconsin Media and Democracy) [Note: Persson and Bottari broke this story in February 2015]
Walker now has in place a University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents composed of a large majority of politically vetted members dedicated to destroying the very institution they are appointed to safeguard. In May 2017, Walker will have appointed 16 of 18 serving members of the UW System Board of Regents. (Mal Contends)
Used to be the University of Wisconsin-Madison drew 1,000s of applicants from the world-over to study at one of the nation's premier educational institutions and a verdant, cultural oasis in the Midwest.
Scott Walker never liked this state of affairs and is out to destroy an institution that took generations to build.
From the New York Times:
Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal for weakening tenure at Wisconsin’s highly respected state university system and undermining the faculty’s role in campus governance will appeal to conservative voters whose support he needs to win the Republican presidential nomination.
But if this proposal becomes law, it will damage the university, perhaps irreparably. It will make it harder to recruit top-tier faculty members, who have the pick of other institutions that respect academic independence and where they do not have to fear dismissal for taking controversial views or for doing research that might be frowned upon by politicians.
It has become fashionable to portray academia as a haven for people who enjoy job security while others are subject to layoffs and downsizing. But most college instructors are not protected by tenure. According to federal data, only 20.35 percent of instructional faculty at American colleges are full-time, tenure-track workers (down from 45 percent in 1975). Colleges rely heavily on miserably paid part-timers who flee the campus when class is finished so they can get to the next job.
Tenure protections were devised in the mid-20th century to protect academics from political reprisals. Current Wisconsin state law respects this tradition, allowing tenured faculty to be fired for just cause or in financial emergencies.
A committee of state lawmakers last week approved a new proposal that would remove tenure from state law, leaving the matter to the university system’s 18-member Board of Regents, 16 of whom are appointed by the governor with the confirmation of the State Senate. Under the proposal, the board would be able set new, vaguer standards for firing tenured faculty: “when such an action is deemed necessary due to a budget or program decision requiring program discontinuance, curtailment, modification or redirection.” Another provision would weaken the faculty’s voice in policy and personnel decisions.
Faculty members have ample reason to suspect Mr. Walker’s motives. Earlier this year, he issued a budget containing devastating spending cuts that also sought to amend the university’s mission statement to make it sound more like a trade school than a prominent research institution. He backed away from the new language after the state erupted in protest.
The Legislature, which will take up the new proposals later this month, can still reject them. Rubber-stamping them would set the state university on a course that Wisconsinites could regret for decades to come. #
UW System Board of Regents
John Robert Behling - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2012 (Regent Vice President)
Mark J. Bradley - Term expires May 2017
José Delgado - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2014
Tony Evers - Elected as Superintendent of Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
Margaret Farrow - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2013
Michael Grebe, Jr. - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2015
Eve Hall - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2014
Nicolas Harsy - Term expires May 2016
Tim Higgins - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2011
Edmund Manydeeds - Term expires May 2017
Regina Millner - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2012 (Regent President)
Janice Mueller - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2013
Drew Petersen - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2013
Charles Pruitt - Term expires May 2016
Anicka Purath - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2015
José F. Vásquez - Term expires May 2016
Gerald Whitburn - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2011
Andrew Peterson - Reappointed by Scott Walker in 2015.
Peterson is president of the Wisconsin Technical College System Board similarly dominated by Walker appointees.
Jun 5, 2015
Scott Walker's Attack on UW System Draws National Attention
Updated - What do you with a world-class public University system in your state that took generations to build?
If you are Scott Walker and the Republicans, you take steps to degrade it into a large tech school.
There used to be a bipartisan consensus the University of Wisconsin-Madison works from Bascom Hall and the UW System Board of Regents was run out of Van Hise Hall under the principle of Shared Governance and the mission of the Wisconsin Idea.
Not anymore. The anti-intellectualism and the corruption of Republicans in the state capitol now dominate.
Monica Davey, Tamar Lewin and Dirk Johnson have a front-page piece in the New York Times this morning.
Notes the article:
An incensed friend said this morning, "How to they expect the UW to compete for top faculty with peer universities?"
The answer is Walker and the GOP don't expect UW to compete, the actions are meant to degrade and lower the quality of the UW System, especially UW-Madison, to lessen the political power of Dane County which wallops Walker or anything Republican every election.
The assault on the UW passed on a party-line vote, and follows Walker's attack earlier this year.
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW) as a protector of the UW System does not engender fear into the hearts of Republicans as the Democratic Party is run by incompetent political operatives whose mission appears to be drawing a pay check and maybe working for the Nation Consulting lobbying firm (Republicans are welcome there) one day.
Still, I doubt Scott Walker could successfully seek a third term as governor in 2018, one too many barns burned down.
If you are Scott Walker and the Republicans, you take steps to degrade it into a large tech school.
There used to be a bipartisan consensus the University of Wisconsin-Madison works from Bascom Hall and the UW System Board of Regents was run out of Van Hise Hall under the principle of Shared Governance and the mission of the Wisconsin Idea.
Not anymore. The anti-intellectualism and the corruption of Republicans in the state capitol now dominate.
Monica Davey, Tamar Lewin and Dirk Johnson have a front-page piece in the New York Times this morning.
Notes the article:
Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who began building a national profile four years ago by sharply cutting collective bargaining rights for most government workers, has turned his sights to a different element of the public sector: state universities.
As Mr. Walker takes steps toward announcing his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, he and leaders in Wisconsin’s Republican-held Legislature have called for changes that would give a board largely picked by the governor far more control over tenure and curriculum in the University of Wisconsin System.
An incensed friend said this morning, "How to they expect the UW to compete for top faculty with peer universities?"
The answer is Walker and the GOP don't expect UW to compete, the actions are meant to degrade and lower the quality of the UW System, especially UW-Madison, to lessen the political power of Dane County which wallops Walker or anything Republican every election.
The assault on the UW passed on a party-line vote, and follows Walker's attack earlier this year.
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW) as a protector of the UW System does not engender fear into the hearts of Republicans as the Democratic Party is run by incompetent political operatives whose mission appears to be drawing a pay check and maybe working for the Nation Consulting lobbying firm (Republicans are welcome there) one day.
Still, I doubt Scott Walker could successfully seek a third term as governor in 2018, one too many barns burned down.
May 9, 2015
Scott Walker Lied about Wisconsin Idea, New Memos Show
The documents released Friday to the Wisconsin State Journal (DeFour) and other journalists flatly contradict Walker's evolving statements in February that Walker's crafted effort to remove the Wisconsin Idea from Wisconsin statutes was the result of a "drafting error," "a mistake" and "no big deal."
The new information comes as the scandal-plagued Walker comes under closer scrutiny for a possible run for the presidency.
In Wisconsin, Walker's tendency of evading questions and outright lying are well-known, a propensity the national press is increasingly noting.
Walker's proposed 2015-17 Biennial Budget was ballyhooed by the administration which called it a "Freedom and Prosperity Plan."
The story on Walker's proposed radical transformation of the world-class University system was broken by the Center for Media and Democracy's PRWatch (Jonas Persson and Mary Bottari) in early February.
The new documents include administration talking points showing a communications plan for specific questions defending the removal of the Wisconsin Idea, contradicting Walker's explanation that the plan was a 'drafting error," a falsehood later promoted by Walker's appointee, Budget Director Michael Heifetz.
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| Image - Wisconsin State Journal |
DeFour's piece in part resembles Walker and the administration's spinning Walker's misrepresentations. DeFour writes, "Walker initially described the change as a 'drafting error' but later acknowledged his administration botched the rewrite."
A botch does not come with talking points and line-by-line instructions deleting iconic language of a revered institution. DeFour appears to have forgotten in drafting today's piece he a journalist and not a Walker spin doctor. The same spin that Walker's intentional striking of the Wisconsin Idea was "botched" was printed in a February 6 piece co-authored by DeFour.
Widespread outrage and ridicule over Walker's proposal in February saw the Walker administration release a series of statements misrepresenting known facts.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ran a report on Feb. 5 (Stein, Marley and Herzog) entitled Walker forced to admit UW objected to Wisconsin Idea changes. Reads the Journal-Sentinel's piece:
Gov. Scott Walker and aides scrambled Thursday to respond to revelations that his administration had insisted to University of Wisconsin officials on scrapping the Wisconsin Idea, the guiding principle for the state's universities for more than a century.
In a rapid revision to his own comments on Wednesday, the Republican governor acknowledged that UW System officials had raised objections about the proposal.
They had been told the changes were not open to debate.
While backtracking on earlier comments to reporters, Walker continued to insist in a statement that he hadn't known what his own administration was doing until after the proposal became public and caused a firestorm of criticism. ...
Update: PolitiFact Wisconsin rates Gov. Scott Walker's claim of a 'drafting error' a 'Pants on Fire'.
The State Journal pieces are framed like a Walker propaganda sheet even as its own and other media's reporting of facts show Walker lied about the Wisconsin Idea story.
"Gov. Scott Walker's administration gave detailed, line-by-line instructions about how to strike the decades-old Wisconsin Idea from state law — even as top university officials objected — according to legislative drafting notes reviewed by the State Journal." (DeFour, Hall, Spicuzza and Simmons, Wisconsin State Journal, Feb. 6)
"First Walker defended the change. Then he backtracked and said it was a 'drafting error.' Then, after multiple news reports showed his staff's fingerprints were all over plans to delete wording from the UW's mission in the 2016-17 budget bill, he issued a lengthy and tortured statement Thursday [Feb. 5] saying it was all just a miscommunication," notes Rob Thomas. (The Capital Times)
Walker still is hostile to the Wisconsin Idea as Walker targets the UW Extension in his proposed budget. (Mal Contends)
The search for truth remains popular with the Wisconsin people, with Walker and propaganda sheets not so much.
2015-17 Biennial Budget
2015-17 Biennial Budget
Mar 6, 2015
Scott Walker Silent on Clinton and Walker Emails, Walker PAC Blows Message
Scott Walker and other Republican nominal candidates for president are reacting with awkward silence to news Hillary Clinton has called for the State Department to vet and release her emails transmitted during her tenure as Secretary. (Glueck, Politico) (Schmidt, NYT)
But no Republican candidate (as-yet-undeclared) is in as awkward a position as Scott Walker.
That's because Scott Walker's aides and appointees embezzled from military veterans (CBS News) and their families, and during Walker's Milwaukee County Executive tenure (2002 to 2010) Walker's administration installed a secret email-router system that Walker and aides used to campaign on the premises of a public office, a criminal probe revealed, after Walker first stonewalled the criminal investigation. (Bice, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
"Did you have your own personal email account," Chris Wallace asked Scott Walker last year. (Mal Contends)
Walker backed down, refusing to answer Yes or No.
Chris Wallace's question among many others remain as Scott Walker's shady dealings look to haunt his faux run for the presidency.
The answer to Wallace's question is: Yes, Scott Walker had his own email address and was in receipt of and sent many emails on this illegal system.
The public release of documents has already established these facts, but Walker won't acknowledge these facts publicly, though he claims he did nothing wrong or illegal.
The Democratic National Committee said, "If Walker wants to talk about emails, let’s look at his history first." (Hall and Savidge, Wisconsin State Journal)
History? That something liberal professors teach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that Walker is working to destroy.
The Hillary/Scott Walker email story took a strange turn a couple of days ago when the Daily Caller (Pappas) reported Walker's PAC was calling for answers about email questions from Hillary, not Walker:
Writes Dee Hall and Nico Savidge in this morning's Wisconsin State Journal (Madison):
"Bob Kiefert said that in 2002, when he was Milwaukee County human resources assistant director, he was called into Walker’s office by then-deputy chief of staff Tim Russell. Kiefert showed Russell how to set up a hard-wired Internet connection using a DSL modem and a telephone line. The network allowed county executive staff to send and receive emails and surf the Web outside the public system set up by the county’s Information Management Services Division in 1998," reported Matthew DeFour last year in the Wisconsin State Journal.
Kiefert broke this Scott Walker corruption story in the Green Bay Progressive.
Writes Kiefert:
But no Republican candidate (as-yet-undeclared) is in as awkward a position as Scott Walker.
That's because Scott Walker's aides and appointees embezzled from military veterans (CBS News) and their families, and during Walker's Milwaukee County Executive tenure (2002 to 2010) Walker's administration installed a secret email-router system that Walker and aides used to campaign on the premises of a public office, a criminal probe revealed, after Walker first stonewalled the criminal investigation. (Bice, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
"Did you have your own personal email account," Chris Wallace asked Scott Walker last year. (Mal Contends)
Walker backed down, refusing to answer Yes or No.
Chris Wallace's question among many others remain as Scott Walker's shady dealings look to haunt his faux run for the presidency.
The answer to Wallace's question is: Yes, Scott Walker had his own email address and was in receipt of and sent many emails on this illegal system.
The public release of documents has already established these facts, but Walker won't acknowledge these facts publicly, though he claims he did nothing wrong or illegal.
The Democratic National Committee said, "If Walker wants to talk about emails, let’s look at his history first." (Hall and Savidge, Wisconsin State Journal)
History? That something liberal professors teach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that Walker is working to destroy.
The Hillary/Scott Walker email story took a strange turn a couple of days ago when the Daily Caller (Pappas) reported Walker's PAC was calling for answers about email questions from Hillary, not Walker:
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s political action committee is hitting Hillary Clinton over the recent revelations that she used private email accounts for official business while secretary of state, saying she needs to address questions about the legality of the practice.Either Kukowski has an unconventional sense of irony or Kukowski just embarrassed herself out of a job (but that will have to wait).
“Hillary Clinton’s potential evasion of laws is something she should answer questions about,” Kirsten Kukowski, a spokeswoman for Walker’s new political action committee, Our American Revival, said in an email.
Writes Dee Hall and Nico Savidge in this morning's Wisconsin State Journal (Madison):
Walker has said that throughout his time as Milwaukee County executive, he had a clear policy that county employees were prohibited from using county resources or county time to be involved in political activities.Putting aside the questions what shady characters like Tim Russell (embezzled from military veterans) and Kelly Rindfleisch (convicted of misconduct in public office) were doing as top aides to Scott Walker and what this tells us about Walker, note that in 2002 Walker ordered the installation of another secret router to avoid public disclosure and campaign.
But investigative records released in February 2014 indicated Walker was aware his staff was communicating about campaign business using private emails during regular county work hours.
In one message, Walker aide Cindy Archer wrote to deputy chief of staff Kelly Rindfleisch explaining that she used a private email account to communicate with Walker and his chief of staff, Tom Nardelli.
“Consider yourself now in the ‘inner circle’ :) I use this private account quite a bit to communicate with SKW and Nardelli,” Archer wrote, referring to Walker’s initials. “You should be sure you check it throughout the day.”
In a May 13, 2010, email on which Walker was copied, campaign adviser R.J. Johnson gave the final OK to two county staff members — Rindfleisch and Nardelli — along with campaign officials on what to say about another Walker employee, Darlene Wink, who had been caught posting campaign-related comments online about Walker during work time.
The approved statement: “No one in our office had any knowledge that Darlene was posting any comments during work hours. The county executive and chief of staff expressly forbid staff participation in any campaign-related activity while on county time.”
That is the tip of the spear, as Walker's political allies attempt to shut down and censor deliberations of the Wisconsin Supreme Court's consideration of cases from another criminal probe involving Walker's scheme, John Doe II
"Bob Kiefert said that in 2002, when he was Milwaukee County human resources assistant director, he was called into Walker’s office by then-deputy chief of staff Tim Russell. Kiefert showed Russell how to set up a hard-wired Internet connection using a DSL modem and a telephone line. The network allowed county executive staff to send and receive emails and surf the Web outside the public system set up by the county’s Information Management Services Division in 1998," reported Matthew DeFour last year in the Wisconsin State Journal.
Kiefert broke this Scott Walker corruption story in the Green Bay Progressive.
Writes Kiefert:
During the 1990s, I was responsible for technology in the Department of Human Resources (DHR) and had set up a departmental network with email and a web site with it’s own ISDN line link to the internet. We were one of several county departments who had moved in this direction in the 90s in advance of a countywide system later developed by the central Information Management Services Division (IMSD).Baloney is something the rest of America is going to have to get used to as a steady diet if Scott Walker prays more and gets instructions to form a presidential exploratory committee in the coming months.
DHR was only one floor below the County Executive’s Office in the Courthouse, and Tim Russell wanted to know how I did it. During our meeting in 2002, I told him.
As I remember, Russell told me that Scott Walker was very appreciative of my help and wanted to thank me personally. Russell took me over to Walker’s office for the meet and greet, but he turned out to be busy and only smiled and waved from his desk as we stood outside his office door.
I have no doubt that Walker knew what he was smiling and waving about. Russell had certainly made it clear that we were doing this at Walker’s bidding.
I have not really talked much about that day over the years and was not contacted about this information during the recent John Doe inquiry. That I assisted other departments within the county on technology issues during this period was certainly no secret at the time.
But I can tell you one thing, if Walker continues to deny knowledge of this email system and its usage, he is giving you a line of baloney.
Feb 16, 2015
Scott Walker—Evasive and Dishonest
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| Scott Walker's evasive style and refusal to answer questions is SOP |
"As much as Walker jauntily yearns to go big, his proposed budget is filled with provisions that are small and conniving.
"Walker’s central organizing principle is to permanently cripple Wisconsin government at every level and to undermine public education by manufacturing a budget crisis despite an improving economy. Simultaneously, he is burdening future leaders with unknowable financial crises once Walker is done exploiting the state to bolster his tea party credibility." (Fanland, The Capital Times)
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Scott Walker is trying to project an image of a big and bold leader making decisive calls in his fundraising campaign disguised as a presidential run.
Serious minds in the Republican Party know better than presenting Scott Walker as the Republican Party nominee for president of the United States, so Jeb Bush will get the nomination.
It comes as no surprise to most people in Wisconsin that Scott Walker's top aides, friends and appointees were convicted of an array of felonies and misdemeanors in the public integrity investigation known here as WalkerGate I (or John Doe I). (Bice, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
The scandal saw Walker's aides plead guilty to an array of crimes including misconduct in public office, embezzling from military veterans and their families, and revealed a secret email-router system Walker and aides used to campaign on the premises of public office.
Walker refused to answer the question if Walker personally used the system after being asked on GOP-friendly Fox News by Chris Wallace last year, though released emails show Walker did use the illegal system.
As Chris Wallace put it to Scott Walker:
In one email that was released this week, your then chief of staff Thomas Nardelli, let’s put this up on the screen, writes campaign and county workers that you wanted to hold daily conference calls, 'to review events of the day or of a previous or future day so we can better coordinate sound timely responses,' and in another e-mail county administrative director Cynthia Archer suggests that colleagues should use a private e-mail account. 'I use this private account quite a bit to communicate with SKW,' that’s you, 'and Nardelli, the former chief of staff.Walker ran away from the question, prompting the following exchange:
Question: if county workers were doing nothing wrong, why should they be using a private e-mail account?
WALLACE: Did you have your own private e-mail account?
Scott Walker: It’s one of those where I point out district attorney has reviewed every single one of these issues.
WALLACE: But sir, you’re not answering my question.
Scott Walker: No, because I’m not going to get into 27,000 different pieces of information. (Isreal, ThinkProgress)
Actually, Wallace's question is: Did Scott Walker have his private [and illegal] email account.
The answer is 'yes,' and Walker should have been prosecuted.
The evasive, shifty Scott Walker is typical.
Walker used his taxpayer-financed position as Milwaukee County Executive to secretly run for governor, first gearing up for his run in 2006, aborting it, and then running successfully running in 2010.
Now, Walker is attempting to abort WalkerGate II (or John Doe II), another public integrity investigation, looking into Scott Walker's Recall, a criminal scheme and campaign funded by dark money and illegal campaign coordination, (Marley, Bice and Glauber, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel), as WalkerGate II cases have reached the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Walker proposes that four GOP-friendly judges on the Wisconsin Supreme Court get to decide their own ethics (eliminating of the Judicial Council, already stacked with Walker-vetted ideological appointees) as prosecutors and constitutional law enforcement officers ask that justices recuse themselves now that consolidated John Doe II cases are before the Court. (Fischer, PRWatch)
We need honest jurists committed to the rule-of-law to hold accountable corruption and criminality in our public officials.
Don't look for candid or even responsive answers from Scott Walker when asked about his public conduct.
Feb 5, 2015
Wisconsin Idea Fiasco—Scott Walker Says 'Staffer Did It', Record Shows Walker Lied
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| Wisconsin Idea drafting notes disconfirm Scott Walker's excuses (WSJ) |
Scott Walker lied; political appointee falls on sword after news breaks Scott Walker's administration directed abolishing Wisconsin Idea language - Walker still claims he did not know what his own administration was doing in Walker's ballyhooed 2015-17 State Budget proposal
Senate Democratic Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling said if Walker was going to blame "rogue staffers" for writing portions of the budget, it "raises serious questions about who is in control while he is busy running for president." (Wisconsin Public Radio)
What did Scott Walker know and when did he know it?
Updated: "Scott Walker forced to admit UW objected to Wisconsin Idea changes - Gov. Scott Walker and aides scrambled Thursday to respond to revelations that his administration had insisted to University of Wisconsin officials on scrapping the Wisconsin Idea, the guiding principle for the state's universities for more than a century."
In a rapid revision to his own comments on Wednesday, the Republican governor acknowledged that UW System officials had raised objections about the proposal."
"They had been told the changes were not open to debate."
"While backtracking on earlier comments to reporters, Walker continued to insist in a statement that he hadn't known what his own administration was doing until after the proposal became public and caused a firestorm of criticism." (Stein, Marley and Herzog, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) (Updated 7:02 p.m.)
For Scott Walker to remove the Wisconsin Idea mission of the University from Wisconsin statutes in his hyped budget proposal, and then as criticism mounted say a miscommunication resulted in a drafting error strains credulity.
The staffer who took responsibility for the "error," Michael Heifetz, is a Walker political appointee.
Surely such a potentially devastating error to the University of Wisconsin System will result in Walker's call for Heifetz' resignation. Of course not.
Scott Walker just as surly will hold a no-holds-barred question-and-answer listening session explaining Walker's understanding of the Wisconsin Idea, and Walker's complicity in [(ALMOST) removing language from the Wisconsin statute erasing the mission to "educate people and improve the human condition," as well as the language specifying that "the search for truth" is "basic to every purpose of the system." Of course not.
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For a guy claiming to be an outside-the-beltway candidate, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has learned cardinal rules of Washington politics: Blame a staffer; never take responsibility and never consider accountability.
Michael Heifetz is a Walker political appointee, named State Budget Director in November 2013. (Novak, Wisconsin State Journal)
Before that Heifetz was a health insurance executive and policy adviser to the Republican Assembly Majority Leader.
"Gov. Scott Walker's administration gave detailed, line-by-line instructions about how to strike the decades-old Wisconsin Idea from state law — even as top university officials objected — according to legislative drafting notes reviewed by the State Journal." (DeFour, Hall, Spicuzza and Simmons, Wisconsin State Journal)
"First Walker defended the change. Then he backtracked and said it was a 'drafting error.' Then, after multiple news reports showed his staff's fingerprints were all over plans to delete wording from the UW's mission in the 2016-17 budget bill, he issued a lengthy and tortured statement Thursday saying it was all just a miscommunication," notes Rob Thomas. (The Capital Times)
"On Wednesday, Walker initially expressed no concerns when questioned by a reporter about the proposed changes to the system's mission statements."
"'Learning's important, but ultimately it's most important for people to get the chance to get the education they need to succeed in the workforce and in life,' Walker said during a stop in De Pere, according to Wisconsin Radio Network." (Stein, Marley and Herzog, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
Even as Walker's initial defense crumpled, Walker's instructions were proven as facts.
But not according to Heifetz.
For public consumption, Heifetz has apparently agreed to fall on Scott Walker's sword, a sword that was to be used to abolish the Wisconsin Idea, following slashing of the UW System budget.
"Governor Walker never intended for the Wisconsin Idea language to be changed. In this specific case, there was clearly a misunderstanding and I take responsibility for this drafting error. I will work to fix this moving forward," said Heifetz. (DeFour, Hall, Spicuzza and Simmons, Wisconsin State Journal)
Walker issued a flat denial today. "The only discussion we ever had about mission was maybe adding something about career development. We never talked with my budget team about altering the Wisconsin Idea," said Walker.
So Heifetz, a veteran budgetary pol at the leadership level, and Scott Walker, a career Wisconsin politician, never had any idea that striking out the Wisconsin Idea language was occurring, and Heifetz divines Walker never intended that the Wisconsin Idea language be changed, though both Heifetz and Walker blame miscommunication as the real culprit.
This despite the record showing that Scott Walker's administration gave "line-by-line instructions about how to strike the decades-old Wisconsin Idea from state law." (DeFour, Hall, Spicuzza and Simmons, Wisconsin State Journal)
Scott Walker and his administration wanted to abolish the Wisconsin Idea, emails and legislative records prove it and Scott Walker still denies it.
UW System president Ray Cross has taken 'yes' for an answer, agreeing for the record with Walker's staffer-did-it chronology, something Cross and supporters of the UW System can use as leverage against Walker during the legislative session when UW System funding comes up.
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The Center for Media and Democracy's PRWatch (Jonas Persson and Mary Bottari) that broke the Abolish-the-Wisconsin Idea story has a piece out today entitled "Rumors of the Walker Probe's Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated," by Brendan Fischer.
Recommend Fischer's piece because the nominally lead candidate for the nomination of the Republican Party for the president of the United States is at the center of a criminal scheme being investigated by a bipartisan John Doe probe. (Marley, Bice and Glauber, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
Four Republicans who sit on the Wisconsin Supreme Court are going to have to fall on their ethical swords to save Scott Walker from the probe.
No matter the judgment of the Court, Scott Walker stands exposed as just another lying politician who will say anything to save his hide.
Scott Walker Backs Down, Says Removing Wisconsin Idea Is "Drafting Error"
Update: For those who doubt Scott Walker's sincerity on the Wisconsin Idea, check out this description of the Wisconsin Idea from the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau.
Facing widespread opposition, Scott Walker called removing the Wisconsin Idea a "drafting error." (Herzog, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
This was no drafting error, and Scott Walker is simply not credible.
Clearly Scott Walker is a reckless ideologue who thankfully was caught red-handed trying to eviscerate what has taken generations to create.
From Jonas Persson and Mary Bottari at PRWatch:
Facing widespread opposition, Scott Walker called removing the Wisconsin Idea a "drafting error." (Herzog, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
This was no drafting error, and Scott Walker is simply not credible.
Clearly Scott Walker is a reckless ideologue who thankfully was caught red-handed trying to eviscerate what has taken generations to create.
From Jonas Persson and Mary Bottari at PRWatch:
 |
| Scott Walker wants to strike out language of the Wisconsin Idea |
Feb 4, 2015
Scott Walker Wants to Strike out Wisconsin Idea and Public Service
Finding resistance weak, Scott Walker proposes removing Wisconsin Idea and public service language from UW System mission
Update II: Scott Walker said the language removing the Wisconsin Idea is a "drafting error." (Herzog, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
Updated - "The Wisconsin Idea is embedded in our DNA," University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross said in a statement. "It is so much more than words on a page. It is the reason the UW System exists. It defines us and forever will distinguish us as a great, public university. We will work to preserve the Wisconsin Idea in every form."
Will Wisconsin Idea Fellowships be abolished?
Endowments and projects mark the Wisconsin Idea vision. Will these endowments now cease?
How about the "The Wisconsin Idea Seminar[,] a five-day traveling study tour that immerses forty UW–Madison faculty, academic staff, and administrators in the educational, industrial, social, and political realities of Wisconsin. Begun in 1985, the seminar introduces and promotes the Wisconsin Idea and our commitment to use university expertise and resources to address the problems of the state."
This was begun by Chancellor Donna Shalala, who is stepping down as Chancellor at the U. of Miami this year.
The story was first reported by Jonas Persson and Mary Bottari at PRWatch.
What can Scott Walker possibly be thinking?
Is this man so isolated in his anti-intellectual bubble that Walker cannot fathom the value of and identity to Wisconsin that the Wisconsin Idea embodies?
"Search for truth" and "Improve the human condition" must be stricken from the Wisconsin state statute according to Scott Walker's "Freedom and Prosperity" budget.
Walker is amassing $ Millions as he literally proposes to change the books on searching for truth and improving the human condition.
How about the Wisconsin Idea scholarship?
Karen Herzog of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has the story epitomizing Scott Walker's assault on the University of Wisconsin System:
"Gov. Scott Walker's proposed budget calls for essentially removing the public service language from the University of Wisconsin System's mission to focus more on workforce development, according to language released Wednesday morning."
The Wisconsin Idea has long been the core philosophy of the UW System, driving campuses to extend their reach into communities and 'every family in the state.'"
Not even Joe McCarthy at the depths of McCarthyism dared take on UW-Madison.
UW officials are stunned.
Throughout the now UW System, the Wisconsin Idea is cherished.
The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) message from Director, Charles Brokopp, states "Our laboratory embodies the Wisconsin Idea that brings valuable services, research and education to improve people’s lives 'beyond the classroom' and throughout the world."
Striking the Wisconsin Idea is evidently the big and bold idea of Scott Walker.
Thanks to the work of UW-Madison, the world is more prepared for the outbreak of emerging influenza and disease than at any point in human history, (mal contends) but I guess the concept of public health is frightening to Walker and his crazy ideology.
The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene is the premier influenza virus surveillance public health program anywhere in the country, partnered with the University.
Walker never ran on this proposed radical removal of the Wisconsin Idea from the UW System.
Jonas Persson and Mary Bottari at PRWatch:
Walker's executive budget (see below) amends Sec. 1111 of the statutes to remove language specifying that the UW system has a public service mission to “extend knowledge and its application beyond the boundaries of its campus" and to "serve and stimulate society." He strikes language ensuring that the mission of the UW is to extend "training and public service designed to educate people and improve the human condition," as well as the language specifying that "the search for truth" is "basic to every purpose of the system."
Reaction cannot be muted. Names must be named; facts must be stated.
Update II: Scott Walker said the language removing the Wisconsin Idea is a "drafting error." (Herzog, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
Updated - "The Wisconsin Idea is embedded in our DNA," University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross said in a statement. "It is so much more than words on a page. It is the reason the UW System exists. It defines us and forever will distinguish us as a great, public university. We will work to preserve the Wisconsin Idea in every form."
Will Wisconsin Idea Fellowships be abolished?
Endowments and projects mark the Wisconsin Idea vision. Will these endowments now cease?
How about the "The Wisconsin Idea Seminar[,] a five-day traveling study tour that immerses forty UW–Madison faculty, academic staff, and administrators in the educational, industrial, social, and political realities of Wisconsin. Begun in 1985, the seminar introduces and promotes the Wisconsin Idea and our commitment to use university expertise and resources to address the problems of the state."
This was begun by Chancellor Donna Shalala, who is stepping down as Chancellor at the U. of Miami this year.
The story was first reported by Jonas Persson and Mary Bottari at PRWatch.
What can Scott Walker possibly be thinking?
Is this man so isolated in his anti-intellectual bubble that Walker cannot fathom the value of and identity to Wisconsin that the Wisconsin Idea embodies?
"Search for truth" and "Improve the human condition" must be stricken from the Wisconsin state statute according to Scott Walker's "Freedom and Prosperity" budget.
Walker is amassing $ Millions as he literally proposes to change the books on searching for truth and improving the human condition.
How about the Wisconsin Idea scholarship?
Karen Herzog of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has the story epitomizing Scott Walker's assault on the University of Wisconsin System:
"Gov. Scott Walker's proposed budget calls for essentially removing the public service language from the University of Wisconsin System's mission to focus more on workforce development, according to language released Wednesday morning."
The Wisconsin Idea has long been the core philosophy of the UW System, driving campuses to extend their reach into communities and 'every family in the state.'"
Not even Joe McCarthy at the depths of McCarthyism dared take on UW-Madison.
UW officials are stunned.
Throughout the now UW System, the Wisconsin Idea is cherished.
The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) message from Director, Charles Brokopp, states "Our laboratory embodies the Wisconsin Idea that brings valuable services, research and education to improve people’s lives 'beyond the classroom' and throughout the world."
Striking the Wisconsin Idea is evidently the big and bold idea of Scott Walker.
Thanks to the work of UW-Madison, the world is more prepared for the outbreak of emerging influenza and disease than at any point in human history, (mal contends) but I guess the concept of public health is frightening to Walker and his crazy ideology.
The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene is the premier influenza virus surveillance public health program anywhere in the country, partnered with the University.
Walker never ran on this proposed radical removal of the Wisconsin Idea from the UW System.
Jonas Persson and Mary Bottari at PRWatch:
Walker's executive budget (see below) amends Sec. 1111 of the statutes to remove language specifying that the UW system has a public service mission to “extend knowledge and its application beyond the boundaries of its campus" and to "serve and stimulate society." He strikes language ensuring that the mission of the UW is to extend "training and public service designed to educate people and improve the human condition," as well as the language specifying that "the search for truth" is "basic to every purpose of the system."
Unless Scott Walker's descent into idiocy is met with a united front for one of the world's greatest research and teaching universities, Wisconsin will be dead-set on a trajectory towards the GOP-dominated states of the south.
Reaction cannot be muted. Names must be named; facts must be stated.
Apathy Will Doom Wisconsin
Scott Walker's unconstitutional assault against free speech in the Wisconsin state capitol garnered reactions ranging from apathy to hostility against those exercising speech.
Late last month a state appellate court sustained the judgement that "a lower court properly dismissed citations against a participant in the daily noontime Solidarity Singalong at the state Capitol because the rule that he violated was unconstitutional." (Treleven, Wisconsin State Journal)
That an organized police force would deny the liberties composing the foundation of the state is not considered outrageous by many, including those working in the capitol as the rights of Wisconsin citizens were violated daily, and often violently.
I wrote a piece suggesting that those legislative aides and representatives working in the capitol who assumed the role of bystander without so much as a letter of protest were complicit.
One Steve Carlson found this statement ludicrous.
With appellate and federal judicial decisions sustaining the First Amendment in this matter, those fighting for liberty, the Solidarity SingAlong, again were vindicated.
And bystanders again were shamed. Carlson had no further comment on the decision.
Looking back at the Scott Walker regime and the apathy of many, looking at Scott Walker's trash-the-state budget, bystanders can no longer be simply shamed.
Without mass political action of the type Scott Walker tried to halt, Wisconsin as we know it will cease to exist.
Late last month a state appellate court sustained the judgement that "a lower court properly dismissed citations against a participant in the daily noontime Solidarity Singalong at the state Capitol because the rule that he violated was unconstitutional." (Treleven, Wisconsin State Journal)
That an organized police force would deny the liberties composing the foundation of the state is not considered outrageous by many, including those working in the capitol as the rights of Wisconsin citizens were violated daily, and often violently.
I wrote a piece suggesting that those legislative aides and representatives working in the capitol who assumed the role of bystander without so much as a letter of protest were complicit.
One Steve Carlson found this statement ludicrous.
With appellate and federal judicial decisions sustaining the First Amendment in this matter, those fighting for liberty, the Solidarity SingAlong, again were vindicated.
And bystanders again were shamed. Carlson had no further comment on the decision.
Looking back at the Scott Walker regime and the apathy of many, looking at Scott Walker's trash-the-state budget, bystanders can no longer be simply shamed.
Without mass political action of the type Scott Walker tried to halt, Wisconsin as we know it will cease to exist.
Scott Walker Targets Wisconsin
"Here is the reality—as I’ve been saying for longer than I can remember, Scott Walker is a mediocre county executive who has risen far beyond his talents." - (Rick Ungar, Forbes)
Ungar is generous.
Scott Walker resembles a vandal with the toxic personalty of a poisoner systemically inflicting damage: "It's as if the poisoner never grew up ... . Developmentally stunted, other people are viewed without empathy and the poisoner's internal compass is guided instead by greed or lust rather than morals." (Psychology Today)
A long-time politico calls Scott Walker's proposed budget "carpet-bombing the state and anyone not in line with his chamber-of-commerce and Tea Party agenda."
Scott Walker's run at the presidency has already been exposed as a ploy (Rick Ungar, Forbes), a fundraising project appealing to modern-day John Birchers, racists, a handful of billionaires and the religious right.
This does not mean Walker owes anything to Wisconsin, in Scott Walker's mind.
Wisconsin is treated to the bizarre spectacle of this radical, careerist politician using the budget as an ax to public education, the Wisconsin Idea, the poor, the working class and the environment (with no consultation or mandate from the citizenry), ruining an entire state while launching his presidential run (Spicuzza, DeFour, Wisconsin State Journal), already the object of ridicule outside of Iowa. (Friedersdorf, The Atlantic)
It took Wisconsin generations to build up Wisconsin's public schools and university system, the popular Wisconsin Public Television and Wisconsin Public Radio, community control and the Department of Natural Resources.
It will take Scott Walker just months into his second term to destroy these institutions. (Stein and Marley, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
Walker never ran on this extremist agenda, but once elected in typical Walker fashion he takes a wrecking ball to commitments that have made Wisconsin the progressive state.
Walker's radicalism may not survive the gerrymandered Republican-dominated legislature as generations of Wisconsin citizens begin to ask questions.
The fact is Wisconsin maintains prominent swaths of low-information voters and sectors of the citizenry who have left the political process.
Just how organized and how enfranchised people become will determine Wisconsin's fate.
Ungar is generous.
Scott Walker resembles a vandal with the toxic personalty of a poisoner systemically inflicting damage: "It's as if the poisoner never grew up ... . Developmentally stunted, other people are viewed without empathy and the poisoner's internal compass is guided instead by greed or lust rather than morals." (Psychology Today)
A long-time politico calls Scott Walker's proposed budget "carpet-bombing the state and anyone not in line with his chamber-of-commerce and Tea Party agenda."
Scott Walker's run at the presidency has already been exposed as a ploy (Rick Ungar, Forbes), a fundraising project appealing to modern-day John Birchers, racists, a handful of billionaires and the religious right.
This does not mean Walker owes anything to Wisconsin, in Scott Walker's mind.
Wisconsin is treated to the bizarre spectacle of this radical, careerist politician using the budget as an ax to public education, the Wisconsin Idea, the poor, the working class and the environment (with no consultation or mandate from the citizenry), ruining an entire state while launching his presidential run (Spicuzza, DeFour, Wisconsin State Journal), already the object of ridicule outside of Iowa. (Friedersdorf, The Atlantic)
It took Wisconsin generations to build up Wisconsin's public schools and university system, the popular Wisconsin Public Television and Wisconsin Public Radio, community control and the Department of Natural Resources.
It will take Scott Walker just months into his second term to destroy these institutions. (Stein and Marley, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
Walker never ran on this extremist agenda, but once elected in typical Walker fashion he takes a wrecking ball to commitments that have made Wisconsin the progressive state.
Walker's radicalism may not survive the gerrymandered Republican-dominated legislature as generations of Wisconsin citizens begin to ask questions.
The fact is Wisconsin maintains prominent swaths of low-information voters and sectors of the citizenry who have left the political process.
Just how organized and how enfranchised people become will determine Wisconsin's fate.
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