Showing posts sorted by date for query Solidarity Singers. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query Solidarity Singers. Sort by relevance Show all posts

May 31, 2017

Disorderly Conduct Citation Is Means of Harassment

Fascism at Wisconsin state capitol was struck down as
unConstitutional by state and federal judges in 2013-14

Republican campus speech regime echoes unlawful effort to stile speech at Wisconsin Capitol, 2011-14


Update: Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault II and council member Dana Yellow Fat cleared by jury of disorderly conduct, (Indian Country Today).

Madison, Wisconsin — Republicans and only Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature are pushing a bill aimed at squelching progressive students' right to protest on the University of Wisconsin System campuses, (2017 Wisconsin Assembly Bill 299).

The text of AB 299 drips with rightest polemics alleging, in what amounts to trolling, that, "In recent years, institutions have abdicated their responsibility to uphold free speech principles and these failures make it appropriate for the system to restate and confirm its commitment in this regard," (36.02 Campus Free Speech Act. (1) Legislative findings, (c)).

The proposed remedy of the rightwing to non-existent problems of free speech on campus is to enable the increased use of Wisconsin's Disorderly Conduct statute for municipalities and institutions. Students holding to disfavored political views can be cited with disorderly conduct specifically under this proposed statute and ultimately be expelled under the Republican legislation. [Prior to the inception of AB 299, students can be cited for disorderly conduct under existing statute. In the University of Wisconsin-related bill, mere deliberation of the bill also is intended to degrade the national reputation of the UW, in concert with numerous other Republican initiatives.]

Wisconsin's Disorderly Conduct statute for municipalities and institutions is the go-to law for Republicans using the machinery of law to target, harass and heavily fine non-Republicans through civil citations.

For example, the Solidarity Singers at the Madison Capitol were heavily fined for disorderly conduct, along with 100s of Wisconsinites, as Republicans threatened to heavily fine anyone who looked, (seriously anyone who looked at singers or was deemed "spectating" in the words of a Republican Capitol cop) at the wrong crowd.

The Republican effort targeting non-Republicans at the Capitol was justified on similar grounds as the UW System-speech legislation: Preserving free speech, (WKOW-TV).

The Republican anti-free speech regime was held as unConstitutional under the First Amendment.

If one wishes to see the "free speech" regime Republicans are contemplating inserting on campus, look at the state capitol circa 2013-14, or at Fitchburg, Wisconsin today.

Jun 30, 2016

Wisconsin Citizens Get Another Free Speech Win Against Republicans

Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republicans cost Wisconsin taxpayers $75,000 this week after pursuing the Republican project to deny liberties of Wisconsin citizens at the Capitol.

The costs to individuals and to Wisconsin society incurred by denying Constitutional rights to disfavored blocs of the citizenry are incalculable.

The pay-out comes after the state of Wisconsin settled a federal civil rights lawsuit in June 2016 related to the Walker administration's actions against Wisconsin citizens who protested Scott Walker and advocated civil liberties and solidarity with other citizens.

The case is Philip Dominic Salvia v. Adam Fell and Chris Weiss.

Jeff Scott Olson is the civil rights attorney in Madison, Wisconsin representing Mr. Salvia.

"The lawyer who won the [Salvia] case promised to file another lawsuit representing about 100 protesters arrested in 2013 during a crackdown by the Capitol Police of a singing protest that has been going on in and around the Statehouse for more than five years. If successful, that would add to the more than $180,000 the state has already agreed to pay protesters," (Marley, Edmondson Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

Walker's top Capitol cop had ordered the arrest of Wisconsin citizens for voicing anti-Walker political speech, a years-long enterprise that briefly in August 2103 expanded into Capitol cops monitoring, surveiling and circling citizens at the Capitol, followed by repeated voiced warnings by Capitol cops that citizens faced arrest for "spectating" the Solidarity Sing Along, (Mal Contends).

"This event has been declared unlawful by the secretary (of the GOP's former Wisconsin Department of Administration (DoA) Secretary, Mike Huebsch,) You could be subject to arrest," announced Capitol police in August 2103.
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Reports Molly Beck this week in the Wisconsin State Journal: "Taxpayers will pay a local radio show host $75,000 to settle a lawsuit he filed against Gov. Scott Walker’s administration after being arrested in 2013 while covering the arrests of protesters at the state Capitol."

Dominic Salvia, co-host of the liberal talk show Devil’s Advocates Radio Show on The Mic 92.1 FM, will receive the money as part of an out-of-court settlement in a federal civil rights lawsuit Salvia filed in 2014 against three Capitol Police officers who handcuffed and ticketed him during the July 2013 mass arrests of singing protesters,"
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Walker, the hyper-politicized Department of Administration, (ridiculed widely as the "Department of All"), and Walker's Capitol police chief, David Erwin all worked together to develop anti-protesting strategies, in open defiance of the Wisconsin and United States Constitution.

Wisconsin Rep Sandy Pope (D-Middleton) was threatened with arrest in August 2013 at the Capitol for observing the Solidarity Sing Along, reports Isthmus.

No capitol police officer went on record as opposing the effort to encroach on the civil liberties of Wisconsin citizens.

During August 2013 when Salvia was arrested, Recbecca Kimble reported in The Progressive: "Every noon hour in the Wisconsin State Capitol rotunda feels a little bit different. Today it felt like a prison. ... Two journalists, Nicole Schulte and Leslie Peterson, were actually chased by police officers who tried to grab their cameras. They continued to film the arrests and were not themselves arrested. But Greg Kinsley and Jeremy Ryan were arrested for filming."

U.S. District Court Judge William M. Conley issued a temporary injunction against the state of Wisconsin and effectually ordered the restoration of the First Amendment at the Wisconsin Capitol ending the Republican-imposed permitting regime in 2013. (Mal Contends)

In September 2013, Wisconsin Republicans backed down from their permitting scheme altogether, reaching an agreement with Wisconsin citizens, recognizing the facts of the Capitol as a public forum space and affirming the constitutional rights retained by American and Wisconsin citizens.

The DoA had issued 100s of civil citations that were all dismissed by state courts.

Walker, the Republican Wisconsin Dept. of Justice and the DoA suffered a series of legal defeats in state and federal court between 2013 and 2015.

Below is a video of Capitol cop and woman beater, Michael J. Syphard, walking up to citizens in August 2103 and warning them they will be arrested for watching the Wisconsin Solidarity Singers.

Sep 17, 2015

Scott Walker's Defeat in His Attack on First Amendment Is Story That Should Be Told

Wisconsin capitol cops allow handcuffed Vietnam veteran,
Will Williams to tumble down stairs in August 2013.
An ambulance then transported him to the local
VA hospital for treatment. (WCMC)
Scott Walker's War Against Free Speech Ended in Major GOP Defeat, First Amendment Win for Wisconsin Citizens—Ignored So Far by National Media in Walker's Run for the Presidency—100s Were Thrown in Jail, Treated as Criminals, and Some Brutalized as Walker's Capitol Cops Oppressed Political Opponents

Legal civil liberties victories are not typically sexy in the political culture.

A handful of attorneys and citizens work diligently, the victories are rarely celebrated as a society though individuals' won freedom represent prevailing over anti-democratic, anti-freedom political movements and administrations.

It's no surprise Scott Walker's administration at the capitol that used capitol police to silence anti-Walker, pro-freedom voices—a prolonged effort that became both brutal and grew to outrageous lengths—was halted in a court of law.

At one point in August 2013, Walker's Department of Administration (DOA, aka the Department of All, constantly growing as Walker's power grabs accumulate) and the DOA's capitol police actually encircled people on the capitol rotunda and warned them "spectating"—(watching) an event or a gathering of people declared illegal by the capitol police chief (a former Walker bodyguard now clearing $100,000/year courtesy of Wisconsin taxpayers, and who runs what he newly termed the capitol "Executive Command Staff," which oversaw Walker's using police against political opponents)—was grounds for arrest. (Kemble, The Progressive) (WKOW-TV (Madison)) (Rowan, Wisconsin Media Media Cooperative)

That same month, a local state representative was threatened with arrest for "spectating." (Davidoff, Isthmus)

What is a shock is how many went along with this idiocy.

It's the state capitol, and capitol police are presented with situations rendering them little more than mall cops, but to this day act at though they are under siege and have militarized a function that used to be a cushy capitol tourist information function position, parking police and maybe giving a speeding ticket to someone driving around the capitol square too fast. Notable exceptions who spoke out against the capitol cops include the Madison Professional Police Officers Association and Dane County Deputy Sheriffs Association in September 2013.

Former Madison Mayor David J. Cieslewicz (2003-2011) actively sided with Scott Walker (Mal Contends) (Mal Contends). Cieslewicz is reportedly contemplating another run at public office, one hopes his hostility to the First Amendment and Wisconsin citizens is remembered.

A federal judge in July 2013 ordered a halt to Walker's organized campaign to silence what are anti-Scott Walker speech, civil rights songs and lighthearted fun and sometimes requested tunes by the Solidarity Sing Along (Facebook), and others.

Some citizens were arrested for being black, or for watching or being present at the capitol while the capitol police decided they didn't like people assembling, in violation of the United States and Wisconsin Constitutions and longstanding public use of the capitol. (Mal Contends)

"The Wisconsin Capitol Rotunda functions, both literally and symbolically, as a city center and is fully utilized as a public space to which all have claim," writes United States District Court Judge William M. Conley in a significant opinion and injunction in Michael Kissick vs. Michael Huebsch and David Erwin.

After repeated violations of the federal order by the cops, Judge Conley ordered the parties together and reached an agreement guaranteeing the First Amendment rights of citizens in October 2013 (DeFour, Wisconsin State Journal) (Stein, Phillis and Marley, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

In January 2015 a Wisconsin state appellate court sustained the First Amendment rights of the civil-rights-movement-singing Wisconsin Solidarity Singers or Solidarity Sing-Along (Facebook) and other Wisconsin citizens, and put an end to Walker's regime of denying liberty (and fining) to those indicating anti-Walker expression.

That state appellate case is State of Wisconsin v. Michael W. Crute (Appeal No. 2014AP659; Circuit Court No. 2010FO2108). Mr. Crute was cited with a civil citation when he sang in 2013 and his case was dismissed by Dane County Judge John Markson last year, citing First Amendment violations by the state of Wisconsin.

About those dangerous thugs, a 2014 video by the Voice Project shows the people whom Scott Walker compared to ISIS and continues to brag that he 'took them on' in campaign stops.

Civil rights suits by citizens are still making their way through federal court.

In the video below, cops can be seen as they turn into outright fascists, arresting people, having them jailed, violently assaulting individuals and denying our fellows their very liberty.

One hopes this story is told often, and the Voice Project deserves thanks for telling it in their video.

Sep 10, 2015

Knock Scott Walker out of New Hampshire for Good

People breathing, singing and 'spectating' at the Wisconsin Capitol
drew the wrath of Scot Walker in First Amendment fights lost by
Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republicans. Photo by Lisa Wells
'Your war is over, Walker. Your bums lost.'

Today the Wisconsin Solidarity Sing Along folks—who have the unmitigated gall to sing civil rights and labor songs daily at the state capitol—have a notice out (Facebook):

"The Walker Administration adopted new rules after its previous [speech] permit scheme was declared unconstitutional by ten different local judges. ... The only notifications given [to Capitol Police] by the Solidarity Sing Along are in the lyrics of their songs: 'We're Not Going Away' and 'We''ll Be Here 'til Wisconsin Gets Better.'"

The singers will be back every Noon to our capitol, which "functions, both literally and symbolically, as a city center and is fully utilized as a public space to which all have claim," as noted as well by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley in Michael Kissick vs. Michael Huebsch and David Erwin (Mal Contends).

The federal ruling was followed by Wisconsin Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg's opinion of the 4th District Court of Appeals ruling for a unanimous panel against Walker, and for the First Amendment. (State of Wisconsin v. Michael W. Crute (2014AP659)).

Conley cites Wisconsin's National Historic Landmark Nomination document, among other historical capitol documents in his 2013 preliminary injunction against Walker and Walker's former bodyguard-come-chief-of-captiol-cops (David Erwin) that led to a free speech victory over Walker.

Walker lost a series of state and federal legal challenges by Wisconsin citizens, a time during which Scott Walker actually locked down the Wisconsin state capitol, so averse is Walker to speech he finds in opposition to his regime (Halsted, Wisconsin Public Radio).

Citizens—with all legal rulings in agreement—cited the First Amendment's guarantees of freedom of expression in repeated defeats for Scott Walker.

Scott Walker and Wisconsin Capitol cops lost their
anti-First Amendment battles time and again.
Capitol Police arrest a protester during a
Solidarity Sing-Along patriot in 2013.
Photo: OLB (CC-BY-NC-SA)

Spontaneous and planned First Amendment guarantees of expressions remain in effect as a state appellate panel cited the federal Kissick case earlier this year, in the under-reported civil liberties and political development in State of Wisconsin v. Michael W. Crute (2014AP659).

Reads a January 2015 news piece:

"A Wisconsin appeals court ruled on Thursday morning [in January 2015] that a state requirement for singers in the state Capitol to obtain a permit was unconstitutional."

The ruling by Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg of the 4th District Court of Appeals appears to be the last word on the matter, which became a hot-button issue during the summer of 2013 when Capitol Police arrested hundreds of protesters for singing in the Capitol rotunda without a permit," (Halsted, Wisconsin Public Radio). (emphasis added)

Concludes Wisconsin appellate Judge Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg of the Wisconsin Fourth District Court of Appeals in her 2015 Crute opinion:

'[T]he State [of Wisconsin] fails to persuade us that it met its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the rule was a constitutional restriction on speech and expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment.'
How will Scott Walker's assaults on the First Amendment fly with voters in the Granite State, the nation's first presidential primary?

Contact the New Hampshire Union Leader and other newspapers and find out.

Email letters@unionleader.com
or snail-mail at:
Letters
New Hampshire Union Leader
P.O. Box 9555
Manchester, NH 03108-9555

Or contact the Concord Monitor; and other New Hampshire newspapers.

Live free or die is a sacred commitment, lacking in Scott Walker's conception of America. Reference Michael Kissick v. Huebsch and Erwin; Dane County Judge Frank Remington's ruling for other victims of Walker; and Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg's ruling for the First Amendment and Wisconsin citizens.

The ongoing First Amendment knock-down against Scott Walker should be part of the campaign discussion as federal civil right suits continue against the man who thinks he can be elected president of the United States.

Jan 29, 2015

Scott Walker Loses, Free Speech Wins in Wisconsin Appellate Court

Wisconsin Capitol Police Manhandle citizens
opposing Scott Walker, frightening children
and abusing seniors. Photo: Dawn Henke
"The Wisconsin Capitol Rotunda functions, both literally and symbolically, as a city center and is fully utilized as a public space to which all have claim." - United States District Court Judge William M. Conley in Michael Kissick vs. Michael Huebsch and David Erwin

Scott Walker's assault on free speech at the Capitol has been dealt another body blow, as he amps up his fundraising project disguised as a serious run for the U.S. presidency.

A Wisconsin appellate court has sustained the First Amendment rights of the civil-rights-movement-singing Wisconsin Solidarity Singers or Solidarity Sing-Along (Facebook).

The case is State of Wisconsin v. Michael W. Crute (Appeal No. 2014AP659; Circuit Court No. 2010FO2108).

Mr. Crute was cited with a civil citation when he sang in 2013 and his case was dismissed by Dane County Judge John Markson last year, citing First Amendment violations by the state of Wisconsin.

The case represents a significant victory for free speech advocates, and another judicial slap in the face of Scott Walker who is going thorough the motions of launching a presidential run.

Walker would be subject to national scrutiny and ridicule were he to appeal the case to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, taking on the appearance of a petty, anti-free speech governor who cannot bear the airing of speech with which he disagrees.

In Wisconsin the state Capitol is recognized as a free speech, public forum area, a commitment discarded by Scott Walker when 100,000s of Wisconsin citizens vocally opposed him and his policies.

Crute is the co-host of the Devil's Advocates Radio.

"I feel vindicated today, I’m 2-0 against Scott Walker," said Crute. "In his State of the State address, Scott Walker said we should stand with the French, stand for freedom of press, stand for free speech. But this Governor would arrest those that protest his policies. He would have arrested the media that tried to to expose those unconstitutional arrests."

In fact, Scott Walker did arrest several journalists and those taping arrests, including Matthew Rothschild, the former editor of The Progressive Magazine.

United States District Court Judge William M. Conley issued a preliminary injunction stopping the capitol police from issuing mass citations for singing, looking at singers or 'spectating', in Kissick v. Huebsch (July 8, 2013), citing numerous Wisconsin state documentary sources and the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The Wisconsin state capitol grounds are a "public forum that has been at the center of public discourse," notes Judge Conley. "As explained in its official nomination for designation as a National Historic Landmark, which was granted on January 3, 2001: The soaring rotunda of the Wisconsin State Capitol is designed to induce its citizenry to be, as individuals, among the resources of Wisconsin.' Whereas some statehouses are maintained apart from the urban fabric, the Wisconsin Capitol Rotunda functions, both literally and symbolically, as a city center and is fully utilized as a public space to which all have claim."

Later an agreement was reached between Wisconsin citizens and the Wisconsin Department of Administration (overseeing the capitol) recognizing the facts of the capitol as a public forum space and the constitutional rights retained by American and Wisconsin citizens.

Recall the summer of 2013 Scott Walker administration orders mass arrests for expression of anti-Scott Walker sentiments, including arresting a Marine and stepping his flag into the ground.

Aug 17, 2013

Marty Beil Calls for First Amendment and Union Support of Solidarity Sing Along

The Progressive's Matt Rothschild
Arrested for practicing journalism
Scott Walker's project to impose intimidation and fear—a dangerous political engineering project

Calls sound for workers to support First Amendment against Scott Walker's crackdown on the Constitution

Judith Davidoff reports, Labor leader Marty Beil speaks on the Wisconsin Solidarity Sing Along: "Over the last three weeks the Capitol Police have arrested over 200 singers... but the noon-hour protest continues. These brave women and men sing songs of solidarity and collective action. Songs of unions and protest. They have become part of our history. They have assembled every day since March of 2011. It's time for union members and leaders, public and private sector, to join in and vocally and visibly speak out. It's time for union shirts and union songs."

Aug 16, 2013

Three Wisconsin Movements Converge to Fight Fascism

Iron County District Attorney Martin Lipske protects corporate
militia from prosecution though it illegally acted without a
license in two Wisconsin counties
"This flavor of Dairyland fascism comes with heaping helpings of stupidity, arrogance, and insult."
- Blue Cheddar 

Pollution, bullets and jail have become the defining features of Wisconsin.

A confluence of movements is flowering in Wisconsin, spreading fast as police overkill and Scott Walker stand ready to call out the national guard to quell lawful, anti-GOP political activity.

How I wish this were an exaggeration.

One citizen movement calls for the rule of law to be observed for the preservation of the habitat and environment that would be contaminated by the proposed open-pit Gogebic Taconite mine.

The Gogebic Taconite mine's private and illegal militia is protected by Scott Walker and Iron County DA Martin Lipske, amid anti-Native American racism among Republicans in northern Wisconsin, some of whom are part of a greater anti-Native American movement nationally such as the hate groups, the Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA) and Citizen's Equal Rights Foundation (CERF).

Such groups as CERA and CERF make common cause with Wisconsin Republicans.

Said Barbara With at this week's public hearing on the Gogebic Taconite’s bulk sampling permit application in Hurley, Wisconsin, as reported by Rebecca Kemble and Blue Cheddar: 

"When corporations collude with legislators by paying them and legislators vote for the corporations and abandon the people of this state it’s called 'fascism' and that’s what happened to this state. And even as we speak right now, 12:15 in the capitol of Wisconsin there are jack boot capitol policemen arresting innocent protesters who are singing because this administration wants to quash dissent. They want to quash the voice of the people."
- Video from Rebecca Kemble

Scott Walker, mining companies and their corrupt public officials such as DA Martin Lipske may be itching for a military-police solution, but the rule of law demand these forces contend with settled federal law such as United States v State of Washington (Case No. 03-35145 (1974)) and its progeny cases; United States v State of Washington. (Case NO. CV 70-9213. Suproceeding 01-01. Memorandum and Decision. March 29, 2013) protecting the habitats upon which Native Americans have, by federal law, the guaranteed right to hunt and fish.

As Professor Charles Wilkinson wrote:

"This iron mine complex cannot go ahead without a full analysis of the treaty rights of the Lac Courte Oreilles (LCO) band. More than a century and a half ago, the LCO negotiated treaties that guaranteed tribal members the right to hunt and fish on their former lands. The transfer of those lands by the tribes has been of great benefit to the non-Indians of northern Wisconsin but the courts have squarely recognized that, in return, those promises must be honored. Earlier this year a federal judge in Washington State ruled, under similar circumstances, that the treaties require more than just allowing tribal members to hunt and fish—the treaties also require healthy habitat so that the species can thrive. And, so, the question is: 'Will this mining complex adversely affect the habitat of treaty-protected species?' If so, the proposed mining project will have to be revised or abandoned."

That Native Americans are human beings, protected by the rule of law—including of course federal Indian Treaty law—presents a problem for the energy extraction industry.

No matter that Wisconsin Republicans such as Wisconsin State Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, said, "The (mining) bill reflects the reality of mining. There are going to be some impacts to the environment above the iron ore body. If the law is challenged and ends up in court, the judge needs to know it was the Legislature's intent to allow adverse (environmental) impacts. That way, a judge can't find fault if the environment is impact." (Pierce. Esquire; March 8. 2013)

Actually, a federal judge will find much fault. Because one Tom Tiffany, and one political party, declares Wisconsin free from the obligations of federal law to despoil the environment does not make it so.

State law in Wisconsin, even under Republican Party rule, can also force the Gogebic (G-Tec) mine to stop the toxic effect from sulfuric acid and asbestos of its operations, as the mining company and GOP brand conservationist as "terrorists."

Said Bob Gollubske, a farmer in the Town of Kimball in Iron County at a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources public hearing on G-Tac's bulk sampling on August 15, 2013: "I'm that terrorist that's going to save your life, your life from a mining company. ... Government here doesn't like me. They don't like men that protect their home and family; they put you in jail."

Mr. Gollubske's right, the corrupt people in government like Scott Walker and Iron County District Attorney Martin Lipske want to protect blasting asbestos particles into the atmosphere, the water, the forests and farms like Gollubske's.

---

---

A second movement also springs from Iron County and is the sought-after affirmation of the rule of law so far denied: The movement to free an innocent man, Don Miller, a cause with support across the nation and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School's Innocence Project staff, also in Hurley, Wisconsin this week gathering depositions, affidavits and other exculpatory evidence.

 DA Martin Lipske taunts an innocent man in prison in letter
Miller was railroaded 16 years ago and remains in prison through the efforts of the corrupt Iron County Judge, Patrick J. Madden, and Madden's political ally, the same corrupt and inept Iron County District Attorney, Martin Lipske who fronts for the mining company and Walker.

The innocent Miller was accused of all manner of crimes after he decided to leave his live-in girlfriend and serial liar, Connie Vargovich.

Material now being gathered by the Innocence Project will prove Vargoich lied in an vulgar act of vengeance against Miller while Vargovich was engaged in a secret affair with Judge Patrick J. Madden before, during and after Miller's trial over which Madden presided.

This multi-year liaison is an egregious career-ending, conflict-of-interest move by Madden.

As recently as 2012 Madden ordered Miller to remain in prison despite the District Attorney and the Innocence Project's joint agreement to immediately free Miller.

Lipske in a spasm of conscience, or perhaps self preservation of his legal career had told Miller's attorneys Miller was to be freed with Lipske's stipulation.

Lipske had reported to the Court that exculpatory DNA evidence was inexplicably destroyed while in Lipske's custody, after assuring the Court he would preserve this very evidence. The evidence was destroyed with no explanation from Lipske.

Thr agreement to free Miller was shot down by Madden in a bizarre hearing before Madden (who still had not recused himself) in which Madden rejected the deal that would have freed Miller.

Last month, incredibly, Lipske upset over publication of the fact his license to practice law was suspended for misconduct for almost four years wrote Miller a letter last month taunting Miller who still is serving a 42-year sentence.

Lipske's letter reads in part: "My intentions were to send a copy of the stipulation in which I agreed to your release. However, between the time that I received the form and the due date, I received another letter through the actions of your parents challenging my license to practice law. Therefore, nothing was sent as I intended."

Lipske, in this bizarre letter sent by a sitting district attorney, says in his letter to Miller that because the State Bar of Wisconsin keeps publicly available information on attorneys licensed to practice law in Wisconsin and that such information was noted by Miller's parents, Lipske had to renege on his agreement to recommend immediate parole for Miller last month.

Yes, the text of the letter is incoherent. I have a copy of Lipske's letter dated July 11, 2013 at this link.

The case is State of Wisconsin v. Donald R. Miller [Case Number: 97 CF 60].

But no matter how isolated and corrupt notorious Iron County Wisconsin (population 5,900) is, it can not hide forever from the rule of law, or the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation.

Nor can Scott Walker's Capitol police, and nor can Gogebic Taconite’s mining operation which will face federal law.

From the Anatomy of a Wrongful Conviction:

This is Part II which provides additional information, details and facts demonstrating the inconsistencies, false swearing, perjury, and many lies told by Don Miller's false-accuser, Connie Vargovich, and proves felony misconduct and an obstruction of justice by the officials involved in this case: Circuit court judge for Iron County, Patrick J. Madden; District Attorney for Iron County, Martin J. Lipske; Former Iron County Sheriff Robert Bruneau; Former Iron County sheriff’s deputy, Joe Robinson; and Current Iron County sheriff, Tony Furyk.

The facts provided here are also published on the Internet and have been provided to the above named persons and none of the following has ever been refuted, proven false, or in any way undermined as being anything but true. There are more than enough facts and evidence hereto cause the arrest, prosecution, and conviction of all named persons.

There is much documentation supporting all the following facts as true, which includes certified court transcripts, certified phone records, witness statements, police reports, sworn affidavits, professional investigator reports and tape recordings, court records, information provided by persons having firsthand knowledge, and admissions made by several of the above named persons. This comprises powerful and conclusive evidence of crimes having been committed by Connie Vargovich and the above named officials.
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Officer Syphard and two new hires. What are they afraid of?
Officer Michael J. Syphard grabbed a photographer and threw
him to the ground this week
. Syphard was not on duty shortly after.Sloey, reached by phone said he cannot
comment on Syphard or related matters.
Photo by Craig Spaulding
Finally, another citizen movement is subject to  mass arrests, as they continue singing and  walking at the Wisconsin State Capitol, where Scott Walker's cops are arresting veterans, seniors, journalists, Madison alders and virtually anyone.

This week includes another surreal scene in which a Walker cop arrested The Progressive Magazine's Matt Rothschild for "obstructing," as Rothschild took notes and photographed some one of some 200 protesters who were participating in the Sing Along on the grounds of the capitol.

See Rothschild's Wis. Policeman Rebukes Walker’s Cops.

Said Tom Alisankus, a Wisconsin police officer, lawyer and a teacher of criminal justice at Rock Valley College in Rockford:

"I’m really angered at my brethren police officers who are arresting people who pose no threat to public safety. They swore to uphold the Constitution, and by arresting people here they are being more beholden to Scott Walker than to the Constitution, which is very distasteful for me as an officer of 31 years"

Scott Walker's cops arrest elderly women - Photo: Craig Spaulding
I’m trying to get my head around why this is a priority for law enforcement. There are so many accidents on I-90 (Highway). So why are the state troopers arresting 80-year-olds? That’s crazy for me as a cop."

All three movements advocate for the rule of law.

I have personally spoken with many of the 1,000s of citizen activists; all are dedicated to the good will and determination for freedom enshrined in the anthems, We Shall Overcome and Down By the Riverside.

Before the end of  World War II, the great jurist, Robert H. Jackson said, "Our Constitution and our philosophy of law have been characterized by a regard for the broadest possible liberty of the individual."

John Nichols writes in The Nation:
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is no John Adams (of the "Alien and Sedition Acts" infamy). But prospective Republican presidential candidate’s delusions of imperial grandeur have led him to cobble together a set of rules that he is using to have dozens of dissenters (including veterans, grandmothers and grandfathers, mothers with children and top teachers) arrested for assembling in the rotunda of the state capitol and singing labor songs.

Never mind that the “Solidarity Sing Alongs” were held peacefully, and without significant incident, before the governor’s crackdown began this summer.

The arrests escalated on Thursday. And, though Walker plays on a small stage, those familiar with the basic outlines of American constitutional history will note a certain historical irony in the drama the governor has scripted.

First, an elected official, Madison Alder Mark Clear, the former president of the city council, was arrested for joining in the singing of “This Land Is Your Land.”

Then, just a few minutes later, Progressive magazine editor Matt Rothschild was detained when he attempted to record what was happening. Rothschild informed the arresting officers that he was a journalist and that he had every right to cover the story.

Clear and his fellow singers can point to a US Constitution that guarantees that Americans may assemble and petition for the redress of grievances—and to a Wisconsin Constitution that is even more explicit, declaring, "The right of the people peaceably to assemble, to consult for the common good, and to petition the government, or any department thereof, shall never be abridged."

Rothschild can point to a US Constitution that guards against any abridging of the freedom of the press—and to a Wisconsin Constitution that is even more explicit, declaring that “no laws shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press.”

Yet, both men were arrested. The governor and his allies argue that a federal court ruling that allows officials to establish permit requirements has cleared the way for a wholesale rejection of constitutional values.
As Wisconsin remains under siege by unlawful corporations, unthinking police, and corrupt prosecutors and politicians, the very conspiratorial underground movements Justice Robert Jackson feared in the United States after coming home from Nuremberg.

In form and effect, the corrupt and criminal have imprisoned the innocent Don Miller for 42 years, imperiling our constitutional liberties and only just beginning to transform Wisconsin into a state towards a future heretofore unknown, with most Wisconsin Democratic Party officeholders silent and content to be bystanders.

As Ros Nelson of Mellen, Wisconsin said:

We're living in a crazy time, and Wisconsin is a crazy governance. ... G-Tec's goons emerged out the forest with camouflage, automatic weapons, black bandannas over their faces. It surprised the hell out of some my friends, and I asked the question, and no one has answered it, 'who are those bullets for,' you what they're for, they're for us. If they don't kill us with bullets, they'll kill us with pollution. Any child would know that blowing up the Penokees (Hills) is insane. The details seem absurd to me because on the face of it, destroying our watershed, the cleanest water in the world. letting it flow into Lake Superior, ... letting it destroy our trout streams, it's insane. I hope you (the DNR) can do your work in the climate that is this fascist government that is Wisconsin.

An exaggeration?

Ask Don Miller. Ask Katie Kloth. Ask Bob Gollubske. Ask Barbara With.

Aug 15, 2013

Callen Harty's How Can We Keep from Singing

Callen Harty penned a rejoinder to those who just cannot understand why the Solidarity Singers continue.

Beautiful stuff.

Why the civil rights movement sang as they were brutalized, murdered?

Why the peace movement hails Martin Luther King Jr. and A.J. Muste, joining hands, calling for the birth of a new world as war seems an almost logical imperative of the human condition?

Callen Harty offers an answer.

Man asked a capitol cop a question, arrested for obstructing an officer

Update: Some anonymous soul obtained a permit, the Solidarity Singers went outside as they do when another event is planned.

So, naturally the police arrested a man, Ed Kuharski, anyway for asking a question of some GOP capitol cop named (Mitch): The charge is obstructing an officer.

Worth noting is the incapacity of some—the Wisconsin Blogging Blue site and ex-Madison mayor Dave Cieslewicz—to comprehend the scope of the social engineering project engaged by the GOP's Walker, Erwin and Huebsch.

Despite some some two years of evidence of GOP duplicity and GOP attempts to quell non-GOP political activity in voting, in worker organizing, consumer protection, legal protection and access to the capitol and too much more, Blogging Blue and Cieslewicz remain not so hot on defending freedom of political expression, denying in effect the history of the Wisconsin capitol as an open space for cultural and political gatherings.

Advise Blogging Blue and Cieslewicz at least to peruse histories of the Wisconsin capitol, architectural histories, structural reports, and cultural histories, as well as the published justification for restoration funds and so forth.

But Democrats being Democrats, group think and shallow bureaucratic thinking is the order of the day for the timid and not particularly well-read.

And to Ed Kuharski, this is for you:

Aug 11, 2013

Wisconsin Solidarity Schooled Scott Walker's Cops and Dave Cieslewicz

Solidarity Sing Along

Now that Scott Walker's cops have been put in their place by the Wisconsin community; viz: Walking, talking and observing is not grounds for arrest no matter what David Erwin, Walker's cop-in-chief believes, it's worth noting who in Madison besides Walker and Erwin blew this one.

Madison's ex-Mayor, Dave Cieslewicz screwed up again.

Cieslewicz has been hostile to the Solidarity Sing Along since 2011.

Faced with Walker and Erwin's escalating assault against free speech, Cieslewicz wrote in late July: "So, the singers had a couple of options. They could have kept their numbers below twenty or they could have gotten a permit. They chose to do neither I guess out of a sense of some sort of principle."

In a constitutional democracy, there are many more things in heaven and earth than dreamt of in Cieslewicz' politics.

Three points:

The singers are an organic group; no one knows who is going to show up. Often, it's just families with children watching and listening to the singing for a few minutes, applauding, laughing and passing through. Erwin of course wanted to arrest them too.

The second point is that Cieslewicz knows perfectly well the organic nature of this ever-changing group, in a word. Folks believe they have the right to walk to the capitol, express their thoughts and leave. This is what Cieslewicz derides as "some sort of principle."

Finally, Cieslewicz also knows perfectly well that if some other group has an event the singers will move outside and sing songs, a fact ignored by GOP media such as the Wisconsin State Journal ... and Cieslewicz.

As Republicans, with some rhetorical help from Cieslewicz, continue their appalling effort to cleanse Wisconsin history of the capitol as an open space, the people's cultural and political gathering area, one wonders what Cieslewicz has in mind for his next run at public office. 
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Just how around-the-bend were Erwin and Walker's cops?

See Officer Michael J. Syphard grab videographer Arthur Kohl-Riggs and throw him to the ground and inexplicably scream at him. Cieslewicz finds Kohl-Riggs "annoying," just as Syphard apparently does.

Aug 7, 2013

Scott Walker's Cops: Even Watching Means You Are Now Subject to Arrest

Wisconsin citizen holding sign inside state capitol
in the week of August 5 - Photo by Blue Cheddar
How I wish this headline were a Jonathan Swift reductio ad absurdum comment.

It's not, it's a fact.

Outrage and disgust at Republican Party grows as GOP cops now try to quell even watching, "spectating" as the circling cops say, other citizens singing.

Seriously.

"This event has been declared unlawful by the secretary (of the GOP's Wisconsin Department of Administration, Mike Huebsch,) You could be subject to arrest."


Such are the words of capitol cops, just following orders, circling the capitol warning families, children, veterans, legislators, anyone to stay away from their capitol.

It is only time before a Judge orders court-appointed marshals in to protect capitol visitors from the GOP's capitol police.

"Two journalists, Nicole Schulte and Leslie Peterson, were actually chased by police officers who tried to grab their cameras. They continued to film the arrests and were not themselves arrested. But Greg Kinsley and Jeremy Ryan were arrested for filming," reports Rebecca Kimble in The Progressive. "Every noon hour in the Wisconsin State Capitol rotunda feels a little bit different. Today it felt like a prison."

Just as the GOP intends.

These warnings themselves chill and prevent the First Amendment as well as the Wisconsin Constitution; no judge would fail to toss GOP-issued citations for breathing, walking and observing at the capitol. Or singing for that matter.

And that's what this is: A Republican effort to keep non-GOP people away from the capitol.

Cops have been filmed throwing a photographer to the ground for filming an arrest. (Check the link for his thoughts.)

Think this is hyperbole. Watch this videos, as the capitol police are walking around the rotunda, harassing people for "spectating" and declaring "you could be subject to arrest."

Here is a video of a lone woman, in her young 20s, being harassed by a capitol cop for reasons surpassing comprehension.

Now, capitol officers are patrolling the capitol rotunda walking up to lawmakers, staffers, state workers and families to ensure none are there to sing or watch, or "spectate."

Susan C. writes (via Rock Netroots):
"As I was walking out of the capitol today I overheard two women, shepherding four children, aged 6-10, talking about how 'horrible it was in there today.' I turned around and engaged them. It turned out they had to leave because one of the little girls was so scared she never wanted to go back in the capitol again. I asked, 'Afraid of the singers?' Her mom looked at me like I was crazy. She said, 'No, the police.'

Here's video of a capitol cop harassing a family (they look very dangerous, especially the young man of approximately 12-dangerous-years)



Wisconsin Rep Sandy Pope (D-Middleton) was threatened with arrest at Capitol for observing the Solidarity Sing Along, reports Isthmus.

Outrage is growing:

"My friend, a fellow veteran of the war in Vietnam who has, with due diligence, generally overcome Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, fell after being handcuffed in the Capitol by Walker’s new cops (last week). My friend’s back was injured and he was taken to a hospital after this uncalled-for violence. He wasn’t physically resisting anything. He was—-he’d be the first to point this out—-politically and spiritually resisting unfairness, oppression, and intolerance. My friend has experienced those transgressions before and after his service as a decorated and wounded war veteran." 

Today through August 11 is the National Veterans For Peace Convention held in Madison. 

Look for more GOP cops to bust some veterans today for not being Republican. 

But this fight for democracy against the Republican Party has already been won by Wisconsin citizens.

Aug 4, 2013

GOP Newspaper Keeps Up GOP Propaganda on Singing Citzens

Let-others-do-their-thing commitment by the solidarity singers puts lie to the GOP's stated rationale for targeting singers—GOP is trying to keep the capitol accessible for everyone

In gay-hostile Russia, singing citizens out-of-favor with the government (such as it is) are thrown in prison and treated like animals.

In gay-hostile Wisconsin (where the GOP holds sway), singing citizens out-of-favor with Scott Walker (wherever he is) are arrested and given $200 citations, handed out by the dozen.

It's pathetic for a GOP government to target its citizens systematically and fine them for perceived anti-Scott Walker sentiments.

Supporting this anti-American taxing requires a propaganda apparatus, which WMTV-Madison, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and the Wisconsin State Journal (Madison) supply for the authoritarian Republican Party's benefit.

Nothing is wrong with propaganda per se, but the Wisconsin State Journal, for example, should be straight with its readers and inform them: We support Scott Walker and the Republican Party and compose our newspaper accordingly, if the editors wish to be honest.

Sunday's Wisconsin State Journal features a banner headline "Experts dispute singers' defense" on the Solidarity Singalong.

The truth of the subject of the piece is quite different from the headline.

An honest headline would read, "Experts say GOP officials cannot target singers."

The piece is written by Matthew DeFour, a talented and reliably Republican writer, at least as his copy is run in the State Journal.

For some two years in Madison, meeting daily at noonish at the Capitol, some Wisconsin citizens sing civil rights anthems, among other anti-Walker expressions and miscellaneous songs.

The meeting is organic. Some folks come often, some folks drop by.

If some other group has an event the singers will move outside and sing songs, a fact DeFour ignores in his GOP propaganda piece today, repeated by omission in the State Journal's refusal to state this fact in its coverage.

This let-others-do-their-thing commitment by the singers of course puts the lie to the GOP's stated rationale for targeting the singers—that the GOP is just trying to keep the Capitol accessible for everyone—a falsehood stated as fact by DeFour this morning.

We Shall Overcome is a favorite of the singers', to the Republicans' chagrin.

Folks have been singing this anthem for decades in the civil rights movement, acclaiming the humanity of African-Americans and others who are oppressed, to the Republicans' disapproval. Singing is merely another form of exercising our first amendment right of freedom of expression. In Wisconsin, those who have sworn to uphold the Constitution are the very people who are violating it.

Republicans remain unhappy with Americans of color and their well ... breathing; in fairness breathing is okay as long as they breathe somewhere other than the Capitol building.

Madison Capitol police follow GOP orders, arresting and ticketing anyone per the GOP's David Erwin, Walker's former security guard now playing Capitol police chief (who began 'cracking down' on singing last year) and the GOP's Department of Administration (DoA) Secretary Mike Huebsch.

As usual, the State Journal spins, frames, and contorts this morning's copy to present the most GOP-friendly message to readers.

Buried on the inside (most readers don't read that far) of DeFour's piece in the State Journal are paragraphs admitting that the State through Scott Walker and DoA's Huebsch's (the Republican Party politico whom the State Journal refuses to identify as such) targeting of citizens because they are against Scott Walker is unconstitutional.

Also buried is the fact that Walker has been hostile to anti-Walker displays since he privately admitted he "dropped a bomb" on Wisconsin citizens whom he assiduously avoids today even as he pretends to run for president.

Will Williams, longtime Madison peace activist and Noon hour
singer at Wisconsin Capitol July, 31, 2013. Photo: Leslie Amsterdam
Walker, Erwin and Huebsch will continue the GOP's policy of cracking down on out-of-favor, singing citizens for the time they remain in office.

Citizens will insist on redressing their grievances, though I have heard young visiting families with children who are louder than the singers'.

Nothing wrong with that; we support families.

This is America; Walker, Erwin and Huebsch should grow up and realize that most people reject a Russia-like vision of government enforcing Party orthodoxy.

In the meantime, the least the GOP can do is stop arresting and handcuffing seniors in their 80s and veterans.

Failing that, the very, very least the GOP can do is: Stop  handcuffing and arresting 70-year-old Vietnam combat veterans, letting them fall down marble stairs while in GOP police custody and leaving them to lie on the stairs, to the GOP's officers' apparent contempt.

This is how people get hurt.

I'm not sure what unlawful and immoral activity the Wisconsin Capitol police would refuse to commit, if ordered. I posed that question to someone identifying himself as a Lieutenant in 2011. 

He refused to answer.

Jul 24, 2013

Republicans Again Arrest and Detain 20 Citizens at Capitol, Including Journalist

Madison Capitol Police Arrest Singers and Observers
Via  Blue Cheddar, GilesGoatBoy and Support for Solidarity Sing Along

Scott Walker and Republican are starting up again their mass arrests of Wisconsin citizens for singing in public today.

Not good news for the Republicans as this time WKOW TV was there, as well as the Madison Radion Station, 92.1 The Mic personality, Dominic Salvia who was not singing and was arrested.

Said Bob Jauch (D-Poplar, Wisconsin): "My God, people have a right to sing. The administration is upset with the views of the people who are there and they’re trying to remove them from their Capitol."

Greg Neumann of WKOW has lots of shots of the mass police civil liberties violations.

Look at these dangerous people surrounding by Madison Capitol Police - Maybe these guys need to get outside more and understand that serving as Walker's palace guard does not square with their oaths to defend the Constitution.

Sep 19, 2012

Cops Blast Walker, DOA, and Capitol Police Brass for Violations of Freedom

Update II: "In response, [Chief] Erwin said that it was 'unfortunate' that the unions issued a statement without talking to his department first. 'Our officers would never judge another police department's enforcement without knowing the facts of the situation,' Erwin said in a written statement (PDF)." (Davidoff. Isthmus)

Chief Erwin ought to consider that his walking out of a meeting with a state representative and his actions against Wisconsin citizens present an unacceptable situation, and that making this public communication in support of constitutional rights ought not to present a problem for a police force if in fact it is dedicated to upholding the law, and not merely a political force for Scott Walker.

Blue Courage, Chief Erwin, look into it.

Update: Worth noting as Chief Erwin and Scott Walker's regime expend $10,000s of tax payer money to stop sing-alongs and sign holding is the fact that the federal (and Wisconsin's) constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press are so expansive in our country (though not so very popular) that the state cannot lawfully halt even the "advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action." Brandenburg v. Ohio (395 U.S. 444) (1969) [per curiam opinion of the United States Supreme Court] And we're just talking about Wisconsin folk gathering together to sing a song.

I recommend reading the concurring opinion in Branderburg by Justice William O. Douglas as well. "One's beliefs have long been thought to be sanctuaries which government could not invade," writes Douglas.

Jurists such as Douglas and Justice Black were champions of free speech. When one considers their commitment and contributions to the annals of freedom, and then considers Scott Walker, Sec. Huebsch and Chief Erwin, it is clear why law enforcement associations below write, "If the current trajectory of these policies continues, we do not believe that history will judge the leaders of this state kindly with respect to the free speech rights of its citizens."

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The Madison Professional Police Officers Association and Dane County Deputy Sheriffs Association released the following joint statement on the denial of freedoms by Capitol Police acting under order from DOA Sec. Huebsch and Scott Walker.
The statements reads:

In February of 2011, tens of thousands of Wisconsinites travelled to our state Capitol in order to have their voices heard. It was truly a remarkable time in Wisconsin's history, where people from all sides of a political issue came together in one place to peacefully demonstrate. There was an exceptional relationship between the protesters and on-duty law enforcement officers during this time, and Madison saw none of the strife or violence that has touched other protest movements nationwide.

The on-duty officers acted in a truly exemplary manner during the 2011 protests. They were professional and courteous, and performed their duties impartially in order to protect the free speech rights of all parties involved. These officers, from countless jurisdictions across Wisconsin, set an example for the world to follow regarding the role of the police during peaceful citizen protests. Part of the reason they were able to accomplish this was that the leaders of these agencies were extremely sensitive to the free speech rights of all participants, and as such, did not place their officers in positions that would infringe upon those rights.

It is within this context that we have been watching with alarm the recent developments at the Wisconsin State Capitol. In recent weeks, the Department of Administration (DOA) and the leadership within the Capitol Police have commenced enforcement action against peaceful protesters coming to the Capitol. Officers have been ordered to arrest and cite protesters whose only offense is the silent carrying of a sign. Other protesters have been cited for gathering for the "Solidarity Sing-along," a non-violent group of citizens who sing every day over the noon hour. The Solidarity Singers have been particularly cognizant of the needs of other groups who also want to utilize the Capitol, and frequently relocate outside the Capitol to be respectful of those needs. They are now being cited for assembly at the Capitol without a permit.

The right to free speech and the right to peaceful assembly are two of the fundamental rights upon which our democracy is based. Since the birth of our nation, the courts have taken great pains to protect these rights vigorously, and view any infringement upon these rights with great skepticism. We believe the recent enforcement action at the Capitol clearly violates these rights in a way that should be unacceptable in a free society.

To be perfectly clear, our grievance is not with the officers of the Capitol Police. These officers have performed admirably for over a year and a half under very trying circumstances. We believe that the recent policy change at the Capitol presents a substantial safety risk to the officers who are tasked with its implementation. Simply stated, these officers are being forced into emotionally-charged confrontations that are neither necessary nor advisable.

The Capitol Police officers are also the only participants in this situation who stand to lose their livelihood and ability to support their families. These officers are particularly vulnerable due to the fact that they lost their collective bargaining rights with countless other public employees under Act 10. This statement is as much a statement in support of these officers as it is a statement condemning the policies of the DOA and the leadership of the Capitol Police. These officers are being placed in an impossible position.

We are asking the Department of Administration, the leadership of the Capitol Police, and the Governor's Office to respect the core values and freedoms upon which this great state and nation were founded, and cease their infringement upon these freedoms. Wisconsin has a rich tradition of open government and free expression of ideas, and we ask that these individuals uphold this tradition in a manner worthy of their positions of public trust. If the current trajectory of these policies continues, we do not believe that history will judge the leaders of this state kindly with respect to the free speech rights of its citizens. .