Sanders and Clinton, Save Our Water

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders debate in Milwaukee on Feb. 11.

The candidates should be asked: Will you as president commit to massive, new funding for the EPA, aggressive federal enforcement of the Clean Water Act and declare a war: A war to protect our water?

Scott Walker and Idiots Have Another Great Idea for Wisconsin's Water

The predictable consequences of Scott Walker and the Republican scheme to sell off municipal water systems to an out-of-state, for-profit corporation is a health and environmental catastrophe.

Combine this imbecilic idea with the complete abdication of the state protecting our life-blood, fresh and safe water, and it should be clear Scott Walker is selling off the future of Wisconsin.

Charles P. Pierce has the details at Esquire.

Does anyone contend describing Scott Walker and his band of idiots as sociopaths, plotting to toxify Wisconsin citizens, is a reach?

When Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders debate in Milwaukee on Feb. 11, the candidates should be asked: As the "out of state money and the rising plutocracy chose Wisconsin as their lab rat for the new gilded age (Pierce)," will you as president commit to massive new funding for the EPA, aggressive enforcement of the Clean Water Act and declare a war: A war to protect our water?

Stewardship Among Farmers Is Degraded to a Moral Outrage

Update: See Scott Walker leads Wisconsin Republicans in Lies, Deceit, Corruption and Revenge.

Big Ag factories have propelled the rural-based Gannett Co newspapers to run investigative pieces on the destruction of Wisconsin waters, a trajectory that would be accelerated by Scott Walker's new budget and its unprecedented attack on the Wisconsin environment and the Great Lakes. (Sierra Club, John Muir Chapter)

Nice work. See Budget cuts affect manure spills, runoff mitigation (Rodewald, Green Press-Gazette).

Now, if we can just get Gannett Co newspapers to stop their endorsements of the polluters' political allies in the editorial page.

Bernard Starzewski who lives near Manitowoc in eastern Wisconsin connects the dots on the betrayal of Wisconsin by Big Ag and the Republican Party.

By Bernard Starzewski

I would like to commend Gannett for an excellent series of reports and commentary regarding the environmental debacle in Kewaunee County. In the 1980s I was the first farmer to participate in the Wisconsin Fund to implement manure-run off control in the Manitowoc river water shed. At that time I had 65 cows which by today's standards is hardly a farm at all. What was then a common ethic of stewardship among farmers has now degraded to a moral outrage.

Our politics have betrayed us.

We have bought wholesale into the notion that we are somehow better off by allowing the moneyed interests to decide what is best for us and that prosperity is gained from simply turning them loose. Nowhere is that more evident than in Kewaunee where there is overwhelming support for ultra-conservative Wisconsin politicians State Rep. Andre Jaques (R-De Pere) and State Sen. Frank Lasee (R-(Apparently lives outside the district he is supposed to represent) who then return the favor by giving these operations a pass over the obvious interests of their constituents.

As that crew attempts to patch Walker's broken budget the victims in Kewaunee will find much company in their misery. Regionally, six warden positions out of the Green Bay office have been left unfilled resulting in a 70% decrease in tickets issued. Eighteen more in DNR's science bureau are to be cut representing 31% of their personnel. With hamstrung science and crippled enforcement the entire state will soon join them.

Republicans are responsible for attempting to remove over 14,000 acres from the public domain, a prime goal of the Dairy Business Association whose members include the very Kewaunee farms that are destroying the water there. Some of that public land and water includes the Besadney nature preserve and fish station that supply much of the salmon eggs that support the Lake Michigan sport fishing industry. One of the largest CAFO farms there virtually surrounds the nature preserve.

Unless we begin to connect the very real dots between our collective loyalty to these politicians the situation will continue to decay. They are the tributaries to this river of filth which now threatens to inundate the entire state. That's not prosperity trickling down, its BS.
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A version of this letter appeared in HTRNNews.com (Gannett Co).

Scott Walker and Big Ag Polluters Have Enemies

Stephen Babcock milking a cow -
From UW-Madison's History
of the Wisconsin Idea

Stephen Babcock milking a cow

Stephen Babcock milking a c

Update: See Why we protect our water.

For politicians like State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) and Gov. Scott Walker running political interference for the Dairy Business Association (DBA), the DBA's water and air-polluting dairy and swine operations (Concentrated (Confined) Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)) make political enemies.

That the enemies work to protect Wisconsin families' health, the environment and property values is of no apparent consideration for the DBA (Big Ag in Wisconsin).

Some of major players protecting Wisconsin include:

• Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
• Scientific and legal findings detailing how CAFOs pollute waters, 
• The EPA
• Local communities protecting families from pathogens, nitrates and phosphorous (Centers for Diseases Control) ((Leichtnam, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune), 
• University of Wisconsin System including the UW Extension centers (Mullen, Ashland Daily Press) across Wisconsin educating the public about health and environmental dangers in the Wisconsin Idea in action.

Worth noting is what Scott Walker proposes for the DNR, local control, the UW System and the Wisconsin Idea: Destruction.

These institutions and ideals of democracy would be eviscerated if Scott Walker, the DBA and political cronies like Krug get their way.

Worth noting repeatedly is Scott Walker's enemies tend to be targeted by legislative and executive action.

Opposition is mounting. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, the GOP is after the "Stupid Vote," its only hope. See Damon Linker, The Week.