Corruption—Wisconsin Speaker Robin Vos' Overseas Trip Draws Howls

Wisconsin Republicans are for sale, but face voters in the
Blue Wave election-2018. Scott Walker and Republicans
call citizens like residents above from the 2011 protests,
"thugs." Are these people really thugs.

Republican Con and Graft Loom in Election Year

Madison, Wisconsin — Wisconsin Republicans have become so enthralled by their work for special interests, they've convinced themselves they're entitled to money and free vacations for services rendered.

A FBI probe looms over Wisconsin Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos for the same free European vacation that caused the resignation and current federal criminal probe of former Ohio Republican Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

Feds are looking at criminal corruption, likely misconduct in public office.

Corruption and misconduct are what Wisconsin Republicans do, it's how they operate today.

You can bet the Republicans at the Wisconsin Department of Justice will do nothing here as the state DoJ is little more than a Republican adjunct.

The public interest is routinely betrayed in Wisconsin as Gov. Scott Walker and Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and the other Repulbican fraudsters have become the embodiment of the fraud triangle, a criminal scheme outlined as follows:

Republican Fraud Triangle

Perceived financial need
Perceived opportunity
Entitlement
-----------
Theft and deception

Voters, elections, clean government, local democracy, these traditional commitments are discarded as possible as Republicans obstruct voters, block elections and work to destroy any institution, any process not colluding with the Republican Con.

Witness Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.

Robin Vos took a free overseas trip in August 2017 to Europe paid for by Republican contributors and a Republican campaign group, GOPAC, working to elect Republicans and only Republicans.

Now, I'm betting it's beyond the means of most Wisconsinites to pack up and do Europe, but Vos and his wife, (she pockets $235,000 a year for the Jobs First Coalition that elects Republicans and only Republicans), get the Republican gang to pick up the bill. Nice.

Republican dark-money forces funnel $100,000s into state legislative races led by the school privatization and shadowy Jobs First Coalition are run out of a P.O. Box in Brookfield, Wisconsin, a "shell group tied to American Federation for Children's Scott Jensen, the former Speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly who was brought down by his own campaign finance scandal," (PRWatch), (Wisconsin Democracy Coalition), (Wisconsin Community).

In exchange for favorable treatment in the Wisconsin State Assembly, Robin Vos accepted his lavish get-away, but in all of his August-vacation pleasantness, Wisconsin citizens are left out of the transaction.

The slight against Wisconsin is done purposefully, Robin Vos, Scott Walker and this sleazy bunch are engaged in private transactions and legislative business is no longer the purview of the people of Wisconsin.

Stay tuned. It's an election year.

From One Wisconsin Now

The Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and has resigned his position, in part, because of his acceptance of a trip to London, England paid for by a conservative political organization in association with a payday loan lender. Meanwhile in Wisconsin, his traveling companion Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has alleged his participation in the same trip was on the ethical up and up. One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross said Vos’ fantastical claim raises even more questions that must be answered about his already shady relationship with the payday loan industry.

“Winston Churchill said, ‘You must look at the facts, because they look at you.’ This looks like a dirty deal and we’re looking at you, Robin Vos,” commented One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross. “The Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives is under federal investigation and resigning over this trip while in Wisconsin his travelling companion Robin Vos is filibustering with stories about his dinner companions,”

According to media reports, the trip in question was paid for by the conservative GOPAC education fund and included lobbyists for a payday loan company that does business in Wisconsin. Principals in the business and their family members have donated generously to Vos’ Assembly Republicans, especially in races critical to keeping Republicans, and Vos, in charge of the chamber.

For his part, Vos has shown his gratitude to the industry for their financial support by seeking to limit regulation of payday lenders and make it easier for them to do business in Wisconsin.

Among the unanswered questions creating a darkening ethical cloud hanging over Vos are:

Who paid the travel expenses for Vos’ fiancee? Vos has told the media that the travel expenses of his then fiancee and now wife who accompanied him on his European junket were not paid by GOPAC. But, Vos has refused to identify who picked up the tab or to deny that her travel expenses were paid by a party or parties associated with the payday loan industry.

How much has the payday loan industry contributed to the Jobs First Coalition? The Jobs First Coalition is a conservative dark money group that has spent almost exclusively to boost the campaigns of Republicans running for the State Assembly. Between 2014 and 2016 the group has raised $3.5 million and employs Vos’ wife as a fundraiser, paying her $235,000 for her labor.

If no business was discussed, why were there multiple lobbyists for the payday loan industry on the trip? Vos alleges that two payday loan industry lobbyists, whose job is to advocate for the industry that pays them to lobby, did not discuss business over their multi-day European junket with top legislators from the states of Ohio and Wisconsin, states where their client has operations.
#

Scott Walker for Pres Talk Omits Fact Wisc Gov Is a Lightweight

Scott Walker is seeking the attention of billionaires again, (Opoien, The Capital Times), (Amato, The Capital Times), after agreeing to speak at the Republican National Convention next week in Cleveland.

Republican delegates will never choose the Iowa native, a policy lightweight of such limited ability he achieved a 0-percent polling value in Iowa before tanking his presidential campaign last year.

Last August, Walker famously yelled at an Iowa audience, "I am not intimidated by you," as he ignored policy questions from the crowd, (Williams, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

The widespread ridicule saw Walker's political futures plummet, before dropping out in September, on the advice of God, Walker said.

Wisconsin AG Moves to Protect Scott Walker

The corrupt Wisconsin Republican DoJ is working to shield the criminal Scott Walker adminstration regarding a corrupt Wisconsin Republican Supreme Court decision.

Reads the state DoJ press release in part:

Today, Attorney General Brad D. Schimel filed an amicus curiae brief in Archer v. Chisholm, a civil rights lawsuit in federal court brought against Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and other prosecutors by one of the John Doe targets. AG Schimel's brief opposes the defendants' motion asking the federal court to set aside the Wisconsin Supreme Court's decision ordering documents illegally seized by the John Doe investigators to be filed under seal. 

There are no targets in John Doe probes in Wisconsin, a statute Wisconsin Republicans repealed as it was used as a law enforcement probe that uncovered numerous unlawful dealings of Scott Walker and his cronies.

Federal court filings working to litigate the issues in Archer's case would reveal more unlawful dealings of Scott Walker as governor, hence the Republican DoJ's position.

Scott Walker's New Scheme to Use Government Against Opponents

Most Americans believe we live in a Constitutional representative democracy where citizens can at least count on elected representatives to make policy with an eye toward the welfare of the citizenry.

Republicans no longer believe in this.

Government is a tool used against political opponents, against the right to vote, used to reward financial benefactors, and used as a means of keeping in power, through gerrymandering, the very corrupt politicians now infesting the body politic.

Scott Walker, who has already turned civil service positions into political appointees, now wants the civil service-hired employees to become part of a Republican machine to be used against opponents.

Do you trust your personal information with Republican-vetted bureaucrats?

Believe that Wisconsin Republicans will maliciously use the Department of Justice, the Department of Revenue and other levers of government for corrupt purposes.

If you trust Republican Party forbearance and ethics will keep the corrupt use of public office in check, you're dreaming.

Consider Scott Walker's corrupt use of the Milwaukee County Executive's office and his illegal scheme to coordinate massive private pay-off money for his own corrupt purposes, and the elimination of independent checks on corruption that Republicans wish to eliminate.

Wisconsin's survival as a healthy democratic state depends on not just an aroused and informed citizenry, it depends on a federal check against the public misconduct of the Walker administration and all its fetid tentacles.

Bear in mind Scott Walker will remain a corrupt, narrow-minded lightweight not fit for public office.

Business Insider: Burn Rate and Policy Ignorance Doomed Walker, Not God

Maxwell Tani at The Business Insider offers a redux of the Scott Walker collapse.

Tani paints a picture of the grandiosity of Walker's ego, a stunning lack of policy knowledge leading first the donors and then the staff and Republican voters to abandon Gov. Lightweight.

Tani notes without comment Walker's line in his I'm-quitting address last week: "Today, I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race so that a positive, conservative message can rise to the top of the field. With this in mind, I will suspend my campaign immediately."

So god moonlights as a Republican Party strategist and calls out Republican candidates for the nomination as they injure the Party with their candidacies?

It wasn't god, it was the burn-rate of money and Walker's lack of knowledge that drove Walker to get out ASAP.

Tani is easier on Walker's know-nothingism than other national political writers:

But regardless of campaign-staff problems, Walker wasn't helped by his own demeanor on the trail. He stepped into several high-profile gaffes that critics and some analysts say showed his shakiness on policy issues and his naïveté as a governor.

Walker struggled to answer questions about whether he supported birthright citizenship, an issue on which he took three different positions in a single week, and the renewable-fuel standard, an ethanol subsidy that is a significant campaign issue in Iowa. He was also criticized for refusing to answer if he would accept more Syrian refugees as president, after saying that he didn't answer 'hypothetical' questions.

It wasn't Walker's "demeanor," the guy didn't know anything. The fact Walker was elected governor in GOP-friendly elections, (midterms and Recall), is a mark on the Wisconsin political culture.

The truth about Walker is he is a crooked former Milwaukee County Executive (2002-2010) who has built a disreputable public legacy playing on the worst of racism and misogyny, while too many Wisconsin people who should speak up, (or at least vote), remained silent.

So Walker is back in Wisconsin.

Scott Walker Postmortems Echo Wisconsin Critics

The big, the bold and the benighted, that's our governor.

The vast majority of Wisconsin citizens who did not vote for Scott Walker regarded him as one part corrupt, one part dishonest, one part dense and one part deluded.

Writers across the state bashed Walker for fun and profit since 2009.

The national political press is having some fun now with Walker as well.

From The Politico (Allen, Isenstadt):

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker pulled the plug on a bloated campaign that was headed into debt and was being undermined by furious donors, a warring staff and — at the root of it all — a candidate who was badly out of his league.

From the New York Times (Bruni):

There’s so much we’ll never know [about Walker], such as how far he was willing to take his single issue. ... I feel certain that he was mere weeks away from a big speech advocating the deployment of ground troops to stamp out collective bargaining among the Sherpas in Nepal.

I feel certain, too, that his best gaffes were still to come, though he gave us several gems. In an era lacking visionary leadership, he envisioned a great wall along our northern border to keep out the tides of Canadians fleeing the tyranny of free health insurance. And we learned that years back, he mangled an intended 'mazel tov' in a letter to a Jewish constituent, instead writing: 'Thank you again and Molotov.'

And I wonder: Was it his shallowness that undid him? Just how little learning will Republican voters abide in a candidate?  ...

Walker evaded foreign policy questions, apparently petrified of being tripped up. He bungled domestic policy questions, seemingly unable to cling to a sturdy position.

Wisconsin, the some 74 percent who didn't vote for Scott Walker can take it all in now, this pathological lightweight is exposed for what he is.

Perhaps those Wisconsin rural citizens who care about thriving school districts and livable wages can do a rethink on Scott Walker.

Scott Walker Exits with Petulance

Scott Walker—exposed as a lightweight and humiliated on the national stage by uninformed responses to simple policy questions— has the Wisconsin people concerned, concerned he may take his frustrations out on Wisconsin (Mal Contends).

Scott Walker is not a normal, healthy person.

Rejected, Walker will do whatever is in his power to vandalize, toxify and inflict injury onto the Wisconsin people.

These are the actions of a sociopath.

Scott Walker—Your Homeland Is Calling

Hey Scott Walker,

You lied to us, repeatedly.

You stole from us.

You conned whole swaths of the Wisconsin citizenry.

You attacked educational institutions that took generations to build.

You attacked and still attack the Wisconsin Idea.

You bragged about diving and conquering the Wisconsin people.

You've attacked women, our black and brown fellows, the right to vote, our shared environment.

One can go on.

It's past time, and I'm not alone in this sentiment, you consider leaving Wisconsin and going back to your native Iowa, though any other place than Wisconsin will do.

Scott Walker Called by God to Quit

Scott Walker read the writing on the wall

Scott Walker announced he is leading by quitting, with God's "calling" him to step aside.

God reportedly spoke nine weeks after Scott Walker emailed supporters: "This is God’s plan for me and I am humbled to be a candidate for President of the United States," (AmericaBlog).

Disappointed campaign donors called the shots, and not God, though it is possible Walker was told, "You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting."

A coward to the end, Scott Walker took no questions at his press conference late Monday afternoon in Madison.

"Today, I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the race so that a positive conservative message can rise to the top of the field. With that in mind, I will suspend my campaign immediately," said Walker (TPM).

NYT Report: Scott Walker Is Quitting

Easily intimidated

Scott Walker is quitting the presidential race for president, barely nine weeks since he officially declared, report Alexander Burns and Patrick Healy in the New York Times.

Walker is holding a press conference at 5:00 p.m. Central time, today.

Scott Walker Melted Down Because of Rational Fear

Craig Gilbert in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ponders what caused the sudden implosion of Scott Walker's run for the presidency in light of the favorable ratings Walker has among GOP voters in his policy positions.

Gilbert has been around and knows the campaign game, and what's odd is why he doesn't see the obvious cause of Walker's demise.

Republican and Tea Party voters are concerned that were Scott Walker the presidential nominee for the Party, Walker would be at the top of the ticket, he would be humiliated and risk a landslide in November 2016.

Scott Walker is not an ideas guy, is not a policy wonk, cannot think on his feet, and has no center.

Among Wisconsin political writers familiar with Walker, Walker has earned the moniker, 'the hollow man.'

Republican Party primary likely voters are bigoted, benighted and misogynistic.

They are not suicidal, notwithstanding recent bizarre events in the 2015-16 Republican Party campaign for the presidency.

Scott Walker Imlodes with a Whimper

Scott Walker flounders

The new presidential poll is out.

Mr. Walker, Zero.5 percent, less than .5 percent.

Corrupt, dumb and sleazy is no way to go through life, son.

You have wreaked havoc in Wisconsin, can't think on your feet, and you're ignorant of public affairs.

You're out, expelled, we do not want you in the process by which we elect a president any more. No more fun of any kind.

In July Walker emailed supporters: "This is God’s plan for me and I am humbled to be a candidate for President of the United States," (AmericaBlog).

God's mean.

Scott Walker—Rumors of Campaign Turmoil Amid Demise in Polls

Scott Walker's campaign chair, Rick Wiley, will be let go from the campaign because of top donor dissatisfaction with Walker's meltdown, and some donors are circulating an anonymous letter of condemnation alleging some unconfirmed misconduct on the part of Wiley, according to reports. (RedState) (Buzzfeed)

Wiley denies the reports on all counts (Opoien, The Capital Times).

Erick Erickson of RedState, a rightwing journal, runs a story on his site saying Wiley is on the way out, and "a lot more turmoil is on the horizon," and stands by his story.

Notes BuzzFeed:

The influential conservative talk radio host and blogger Erick Erickson appeared to allude to the whisper campaign [about Wiley] Thursday on Twitter: 'Lots of different people all sending me the same rumor about a particular campaign manager caught indecently at the Ohio debate.'

Sleazy way to treat a strategist and Walker loyalist whom Walker hired less than two months ago.

One wonders if Walker will stick up for Wiley and make a statement that any donors trash-talking Wiley can leave the campaign.

Scott Walker—Kill Anything Republicans Don't Control

Scott Walker turned civil service state positions into 37 new Walker political appointees just a month after declaring, "we're broke" in 2011 (Stein, Marley, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

It was clear then, Walker was after power and nothing else.

Scott Walker's political set-up in 2011 was a fraud, claiming a deficit using budget numbers assuming every governmental agency gets a six-point increase. Never has happened and never will.

As then (now U.S. Rep.) State Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) blew the whistle in 2011:

We found out [Feb. 13, 2011] after our briefing with the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB), the $3.6 billion deficit in the next budget that Governor Walker and the media has been repeating is a MANUFACTURED CRISIS. The number is based on $3.9 billion in new spending requests by agencies, a 6.2% increase. I don’t think there is a member in the legislature that would vote for that. In fact, I asked LFB Director Lang when was the last time we gave agencies exactly what they requested and was told he couldn’t think of one and he’s been here decades.

Independent agencies like the Fiscal Bureau work to keep politicians honest, ideally to inform.

Walker and Republicans had to misrepresent LFB budget numbers and make believe Walker's attempt to injure working families was a fiscal and not a political move, a technique Republicans employ today.

Occasionally Republicans get caught in their lies.

So, Walker and Republicans are targeting independent watchdog agencies, while blowing a budgetary deficit for the next governor to fix.

Nationally, House Republicans adopted a rule in January 2015 to invent budget numbers and imaginary revenue forecasts used by the Congressional Office Bureau, codifying Voodoo Economics (Weisman, New York Times).

Our friend, Charles P. Pierce, has the story at Esquire on Scott Walker's latest exercise in corruption.

Writes Pierce on Walker's attempt to eliminate the Legislative Audit Bureau and Government Accountability Board:

In other words, the problem with independent watchdogs is that they are independent. Far better to put the oversight function under the control of the hacks you've installed in the state agencies. This is especially egregious in this case because Scott Walker never has held a political office that he has not so deformed by his political ambitions that people actually went to jail over it. This is a singularly corrupt man, even by the standards of the our new era of decriminalized influence peddling. He never has run a campaign in his life that wasn't shot through with penny-ante grifting. There is no reason to believe this one is any different. It is an extended exercise in consumer fraud.

Fraud and lies define Scott Walker.

Desperate Scott Walker Says Obama Caused Police Killings

As Scott Walker is found out as an empty suit, the Wisconsin governor has come home to what launched and sustained his career—appeals to racism, white resentment and fear of black men. (MacGillis, TNR)

After the recent killings of two police officers in Texas and Illinois, Walker has found the culprit: President Obama, the first black president.

That's big and bold. It's also shameful, and disrespectful to the victims' families to cynically use tragedy in a political move Walker hopes will revive his moribund campaign, and get him some media headlines.

Walker writes in Hot Air: "In the last six years under President Obama, we’ve seen a rise in anti-police rhetoric. Instead of hope and change, we’ve seen racial tensions worsen and a tendency to use law enforcement as a scapegoat. This kind of attitude has created a culture in which we all too often see demonstrations and chants where people describe police as 'pigs' and call for them to be 'fried like bacon.' This inflammatory and disgusting rhetoric has real consequences for the safety of officers who put their lives on the line for us and hampers their ability to serve the communities that need their help. ... As president, that’s what I’m going to do to make us a united America once again."

Let's be honest. Scott Walker didn't write this column, a staffer did under Scott Walker's name.

Some facts for the divide-and-conquer Walker and his appalling campaign:

• "The suspect in the slaying of Texas sheriff's Deputy Darren Goforth was found mentally incompetent in 2012 to stand trial on a felony assault charge, a prosecutor said Monday." (CNN) The idiot in question is not a man with whom anyone can reason.
• President Obama phoned the victim's family and released a statement in late August slamming the killing. (Yahoo News)
• "Walker is simply wrong when he tries to use Goforth’s death to say that more oversight and scrutiny of cops have made the job more dangerous. There’s just no evidence of that. All the available evidence suggests precisely the opposite." (Balko, Washington Post)
• With respect to the killing of the Illinois officer, Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, not even Illinois law enforcement knows what happened as a massive manhunt continues into Labor Day weekend involving three suspects. (AP)

Not that facts have ever mattered to the pathological liar Walker who disgraces Wisconsin, and in particular Milwaukee County and military veterans.

Bill O'Reilly, Ted Cruz, Breitbart and the rightwing crazies have found the target: Protesting black people, and anyone found sympathetic to civil rights groups and grieving black families must be held accountable.

This does not sit well with decent people fed up with Walker and the rightwing's toxic racial politics of white resentment.

Write Mary Spicuzza and Jason Stein of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

State Rep. Mandela Barnes (D-Milwaukee) immediately dismissed Walker's comments as a tactic to draw attention to his campaign and reverse a recent slide in the polls. (In the latest national poll released Thursday, Walker placed eighth among GOP candidates with 3%.)

'It's a desperate move. It's absolutely a cry for attention,' Barnes said. 'You latch onto an emotional issue.  ...

State Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) [called] on the governor to apologize to the families of slain officers for what she said was an attempt to play politics with their deaths.

Walker's comments prove he will 'say anything to get elected. He knows darn well that President Obama is not responsible for the murder of law enforcement officers and to insinuate otherwise is disgusting,' Taylor said in a statement.

Scott Walker isn't fooling many people.

And there are numerous reasons why Scott Walker is simply not fit to be the next president.

His latest stunt, though, is low even by Walker's fetid standards.

The die has been cast by Walker, who managed to do a lot of damage in Wisconsin in playing his games of division and scapegoating.

Nationally, the word is out Scott Walker lacks the intellect and policy knowledge to seriously compete on the national stage.

Less known is the fact the lifelong politician Scott Walker lacks a moral center beyond his political ambitions, and will say anything to advance his political career, which is to say Scott Walker lacks the character to hold public office or serve in a position of public trust.

There's a reason Scott Walker never served his country.

Never worked in the Civil Rights movement.

Never worked against segregation and poverty.

Never stood up for anyone beyond himself, using people when he could and surrounding himself with sycophants and liars, the type of people who would embezzle money from a military veterans' fund with Scott Walker lying and disrespecting veterans the whole way down the sewer. (Bice. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. May 31, 2012)

It's an act of faith to believe Walker's journey does not lead to the United States presidency.

Scott Walker Kick-off Event Bounced Ticket-holder for Signing Recall Petition

A Waukesha, Wisconsin man picked up a ticket to Scott Walker's presidential campaign kick-off event last week.

He walked into the event, was welcomed, and then politically vetted on the spot and asked to leave because he had signed the Recall Scott Walker petition.

His name had been entered into a hand-held pad by a Walker staffer and the pad indicated: Rejected.

Typical Scott Walker: Vindictive and petty.

Chris Liebenthal has the story at Crooks and Liars.

Walker believes he has a warrant from God, (and he has prayed on this, Walker says), for his political campaign, and apparently feels opposing God and Walker is wrong.

Also wrong is opposing any sneak legislation sprung onto the Wisconsin people who don't count as stakeholders in the massive social engineering project Walker is inflicting onto Wisconsin, driving away as many people as possible to Minnesota.

So look for more campaign rhetoric that Walker was and is facing massive opposition in Wisconsin linked with references to god.

Scott Walker's Proposed Slashing of UW System Is Unconscionable and Dishonest

Scott Walker will have appointed 17 of 18 serving members of the UW System Board of Regents by May 2017; Walker's claims of independent authority are dishonest

Updated - Scott Walker never ran on slashing state funding 13 percent over a two-year period for the acclaimed University of Wisconsin System. (Bauer, AP)

But Scott Walker is calling for radically cutting and restructuring the UW System, citing Walker's $2 billion budget shortfall.

"It will make the University of Wisconsin more efficient, more effective and ultimately more accountable," Walker said.

Walker is taking his cues from the extreme rightwing on privatization of public education, and Walker's continued attempts to gut public higher education are two objectives of a wholesale project reengineering an entire state as envisioned by the the John Birch Society, (headquartered in Appleton, Wisconsin), the Koch brothers and a few other rightwing billionaires.

Project goals, propaganda and money are funneled by the usual radical right-GOP suspects: ALEC, Koch Brothers, the Bradley Foundation, MacIver Institute, the Wisconsin Reporter, Media Trackers, and the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.

Nationally, the Koch brothers network plans to spend $889 million in 2016, it is reported today. (Gold, Washington Post)

Independent authority

In typical duplicitous fashion, Walker announced in his January 27, 2015 press release the "UW System will also have independent authority to establish policy regarding employee matters, including sick leave, tenure, and shared governance." (emphasis added)

Left out of Walker's press release is the fact the UW System Board of Regents, (of 18 sitting members), is composed of:

• 10 Walker appointees
• Seven appointees whose terms will expire in the next two years
• Tony Evers, Superintendent of Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

The Board will hardly be independent, but rather ideologically vetted by Scott Walker (as are all appointees to state commissions and boards).

In May 2017, Walker will have appointed 16 of 18 serving members of the UW System Board of Regents.

In May 2015, Walker will have appointed 12 of 18 serving members of the UW System Board of Regents.

The gerrymandered state senate which rubber-stamps Walker appointees has to approve each Walker appointment.

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.

UW System Board of Regents

John Robert Behling - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2012
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

Michael J. Falbo - Term expires May 2015 (President of the Board)
Margaret Farrow - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2013
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
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

David G. Walsh - Term expires May 2015
Gerald Whitburn - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2011

New Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau Propaganda on Suffrage

Update: A reader notes the discovery of phantom "additional qualifications" for voters in the Wisconsin Constitutions is consistent with GOP voter obstruction efforts in Kansas and Arizona where as the Washington Post notes:

NOTHING FRIGHTENS today’s Republican Party quite like the voters. Before the 2012 elections, GOP lawmakers in statehouses across the country tightened voter identification laws with one goal in common: to suppress turnout on Election Day among likely Democratic voters, especially minorities and the poor. It didn’t work.

Now, harking back to the days of Jim Crow, they are at it again. In Arizona and Kansas, GOP officials are moving to adopt a two-tiered voting system, the effect of which would be to disenfranchise thousands of voters. The ploy relies on requiring birth certificates, passports and other documents that establish proof of citizenship in order to register to vote in state and local elections. Such documents are not necessary to register for federal elections.

"Additional qualifications" to vote are not in the Wisconsin Constitution, but just the same are derived from the text, say the GOP and Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau in a new theory intended to disenfranchise African-Americans, college students, the poor, the elderly and homeless, disaffected veterans.

The Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau's (LRB) Bruce Hoesly, Revising Attorney/Code Editor, is spouting new Republican propaganda again.

Not content to parrot the disingenuous Republican line in its use of the declining-in-judicial-currency Crawford v. Marion County Election Board (2008) decision, the LRB has launched more partisan spin in its new page on Wisconsin's Constitutional voting rights webpage, Suffrage.

The Republican Party propaganda states as settled law, the interpretation of a Wisconsin appellate court panel in May 2013 rejecting a facial challenge to the Wisconsin Photo Voter ID law, Act 23.

Wisconsin citizens' right to vote in jeopardy by the GOP's Act 23 face a law that:

• Remains enjoined
• Is under appeal to the Wisconsin Supreme Court
• Is under challenge in two federal cases set for trial for November 4, 2013

The pro-voter and anti-voter advocates, the contending parties, will not even present intermediate appellate constitutional interpretations as settled law in Wisconsin Voter ID cases, but the GOP line is good enough for the LRB.

The LRB adopts GOP-friendly constitutional positions, though its reference in its new Suffrage annotation is anything but settled.

The annotation reads from a 1856 case:

Cothren, State ex rel. Knowlton v. Williams, 5 Wis. 308, contains a general rule for election law cases addressing constitutionality under a facial 'additional qualifications' challenge: whether the challenged requirement or procedure allows election officials 'to ascertain whether the person offering to vote possessed the qualifications required.' The legislature may impose such requirements or procedures because the legislature has a legitimate interest in preserving the integrity of elections. The general rule is made especially clear in the Cothren court's statement that the legislature may demand 'such proof' from potential voters 'as it deems requisite' for this purpose. League of Women Voters of Wisconsin Education Network, Inc. v. Walker, 2013 WI App 77, ___ Wis. 2d ___, ___ N.W.2d ___, 12-0584.

To translate, the LRB is asserting that the government has the authority to enact laws that are additional constitutional qualifications that are not listed in Section 2 of ARTICLE III - SUFFRAGE of the Wisconsin Constitution.

The LRB is ignoring that the League case is under appeal in state and federal court, is enjoined; and anyway, Cothren, State ex rel. Knowlton v. Williams reads in part: "an act of the legislature which deprives a person of the right to vote, although he [sic] has every qualification which the constitution makes necessary, cannot be sustained."

Surly, 100,000s of qualified, registered voters not being able to present GOP-crafted IDs demonstrates an undue burden, just as GOP intends.

The GOP did not attempt to present a wide array of acceptable IDs that almost every citizen has (as some states do) when they narrowly crafted the range of IDs in 2011 to defeat the specter of in-person voter fraud, though the legislature cannot point to one case of in-person voter fraud out of millions of votes cast.

The Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) is not intended as a Republican Party propaganda outlet. But this is the new Wisconsin, agencies serve the Party and favored citizens should have an easier time when voting than non-favored.

The LRB page states, it is a "nonpartisan, professional, and confidential bill drafting, legal publishing, research and library services to the legislature and the public."

Reads a brief LRB history:

Since its establishment as the first professional, nonpartisan drafting and research services agency for a state legislature, the LRB has been committed to maintaining high standards of quality and to providing thorough and expeditious drafting and reference services for the Wisconsin State Legislature.

Each chief has seen the bureau through the changes that are inevitable with the passage of time. However, each has also maintained continuity with the past, holding fast to the traditions of quality, efficiency, and nonpartisanship that were established with the agency more than 100 years ago.

Not anymore.

Incidentally, Wisconsin appellate Justices Lundsten, Higginbotham, and Blanchard in the League opinion that Hoesly presents as settled law do not relate the text of Act 23 to the 100,000s of Wisconsin citizens like 86-year-old Ruthell Frank who would report to the polls as Frank has for over 60 years in Brokaw, Wisconsin and now be told she is not qualified to vote under Act 23, because she does not have the additional qualification of a driver's license or other GOP-prescribed ID.

Under this reasoning if the GOP legislature and GOP Governor pass a law that says photo IDs are now too easy to forge, in the interests of preserving the integrity of elections, a law stating a third party in your voting district has to attest to your identity and residence would survive a facial Wisconsin Constitutional challenge, though the hypothetical law would not be an amendment to Section 2 of ARTICLE III - SUFFRAGE of the Wisconsin Constitution.

The League opinion notes the following in a footnote as well:

In the same vein, given the League’s limited arguments in this case, we make note of, but see no reason to discuss further, the United States Supreme Court’s split opinion addressing a facial challenge, under the federal constitution, to an Indiana law requiring photo identification to vote.  See Crawford v. Marion Cnty. Election Bd., 553 U.S. 181, 187, 189, 200 (2008).  Crawford involved allegations that the Indiana law “substantially burdens the right to vote in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment [of the U.S. Constitution]; that it is neither a necessary nor appropriate method of avoiding election fraud; and that it will arbitrarily disenfranchise qualified voters who do not possess the required identification and will place an unjustified burden on those who cannot readily obtain such identification.”  Id. at 187.  A plurality of the Court concluded that the evidence in the record was insufficient “to support a facial attack on the validity of the entire statute.”  See id. at 189.

Hey, you note that Crawford was argued alleging a federal constitutional violation, not a Wisconsin constitutional violation, so what again is its relevancy?

Ask around. Justices Lundsten, Higginbotham, and Blanchard blew this opinion in its hard-right decision (apparently written by a GOP law clerk) that is political and one in which the justices apparently self-consciously take the GOP line in an effort to write an opinion that the four GOP Wisconsin Supreme Court justices can use, if they have no sense of shame.

Thankfully, federal court may now offer protection for Wisconsin voters from the GOP voter obstruction project, and perhaps Frank v. Walker, (Case 11cv1128), and Jones et al v. Deininger et al (Case 2:12-cv-00185) will become landmark federal voting rights cases.

Wisconsin Pays, Scott Walker Spends

Scott Walker on tape making pledges to billionaire, Diane Hendricks
Hendricks is Walker's largest donor, along with the Koch brothers

In March 2011, Scott Walker pushed and signed a law in which he gives himself the power to mandate Wisconsin taxpayers pay up cash for 37 new Walker political appointments. (See Stein, Marley. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, March 17, 2011; and Walker power grabs)

This was only the first in the train wrecks that do everything from paying off cronies with taxpayer money, to giving Scott Walker the power to sell off virtually any public land or facility to moneyed interests.

No consultations with the Wisconsin people, no campaigning on these radical policies; Walker is selling out Wisconsin and I would not be surprised to see Walker put the state capitol, what used to be known as the people's house, on the chopping block.

The examples of Walker's public corruption are legion.

The latest spend-thrift spree of Walker's is his tax-payer subsidy to Scott Suder, Walker's co-conspirator with ALEC and the Koch front group, Americans for Prosperity.

"In his new (Wisconsin Public Service Commission) job, Suder will earn $94,000 a year — an 88 percent increase over the $49,943 he made as a legislator. He'll be in charge of the agency divisions responsible for water compliance and consumer affairs," reports Uppity Wisconsinn.

All the while Suder and other Republicans continue to illegally ignore Open Records requests.

In the latest outrage, "Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has taken the unprecedented step of asserting that a state legislator cannot be held accountable for refusing to disclose public records in response to a lawful open records request by the Center for Media and Democracy."

It's Republican rule; and the people for whom they work are not the Wisconsin people so Republicans and Walker keep their business secret from the people.

With disdain for the Wisconsin people, in favor of a small groups of moneyed interests and cronies, is it any wonder Scott Walker has created a structural (built in) deficit and ruined the state budget by amassing a state debt that reaches record levels in the 2013-15 budget, as noted by State Senator Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma).

See also RE Sen. Vinehout's budget-deficit analysis, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel simply refuses to take "yes" for an answer.

Schools, lakes, cemeteries for military veterans, the environment and people take huge hits while Walker and Republicans pocket huge pay-outs. The list of what Scott Walker is selling out is too long to fully note here.

As for that 250,000 new jobs promise Scott Walker campaigned on, Walker now says "it's really not about jobs."

The only people making out are Walker cronies getting paid by you.

Altering of online Wisconsin Constitution; Is LRB Going GOP?

Updated - New LRB page on Suffrage.

Updated - I was surprised to find in the online Wisconsin Constitution's webpage on Suffrage (Section III, aka voting) changes have been made to support the GOP's Wisconsin Attorney General-GOP's position on photo voter ID.

Weird to find annotations in the Constitution to a federal voting rights case directly refuting the clear language on the Wisconsin Constitution.

So, this morning I spoke with Bruce Hoesly, Revising Attorney/Code Editor at the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB).

Hoesly says he updates the website for the Wisconsin Constitution.

Hoesly has worked at the LRB for 22 years, he said.

Hoesly appeared not very well-versed on the Wisconsin Constitution this morning on a phone call.

Background

The following misleading sentence has been added to the online Wisconsin Constitution's Voting Section, III: "An Indiana statute requiring citizens voting in person on election day, or casting a ballot in person at the office of the circuit court clerk prior to election day, to present photo identification issued by the government did not violate constitutional standards. Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, 553 U.S. 181, 128 S. Ct. 1610, 170 L. Ed. 2d 574 (2008)." (emphasis mine) [The webpage reads "Current through May 21, 2013" at the bottom of the page.]

This appears a naked display on what used to be a non-political webpage on the Wisconsin Constitution maintained under the auspices of the Wisconsin Reference Bureau (LRB). 

Hoesly

So I asked the LRB's attorney Hoesly why the page has been altered to reflect AG Van Hollen's ludicrous spin that Crawford v. Marion County Election Board (a federal case relying on a reading of the U.S. Constitution) should be added under the online Wisconsin Constitution's text, with its broad guarantee to vote vis a vis the United States Constitution.

Van Hollen's office had issued a press release dated July 19, 2012 reading in part: "Voter identification helps ensure election integrity.  It is a measure that protects the right to vote. And similar election integrity reforms have been upheld as constitutional by the United States Supreme Court."

After Hoesly denied anything partisan is afoot, I asked Hoesly should he not adopt some "rigor" into adding editorial comment under the Wisconsin Constitution's text on voting rights, in light of his inserted language about Crawford.

Hoesly said, "no," adding, "I don't believe it (editing the text of online Wisconsin Constitution) deserves more rigor."

I asked Hoesly, the relevancy of Artcile III of the Wisconsin Constitution to the federal case, Crawford.

Hoesly replied, "I'm not an expert on Article III (of the Wisconsin Constitution)," adding that he thought of the Crawford language "that it might be useful to readers."

I pointed out to Hoesly that Crawford relies on the U.S. Constitution while the ruling currently enjoining Wisconsin photo voter ID relies on the Wisconsin Constitution guaranteeing the right to vote.

Hoesly's response is babble.

So, why the Republican spin in Hoesly's language on a page that is supposed to be the online text of Wisconsin Constitution? 

Corruption is my guess. 

The GOP-added sentence to Suffrage is misleading for several reasons. Here again is a summary:

1. Crawford v. Marion County Election Board (2008) is a federal case based upon a facial challenge (a law asserted to be illegal or unconstitutional on its face) to an Indiana state law obstructing voting.  
Crawford relied upon the weak warrant to vote under the United States Constitution, not the Wisconsin Constitution. And the Crawford case included no social scientific evidence as was presented in
Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP v. Walker (Case 11CV5492) (2012).

2. The Wisconsin Constitution—the topic of the Wisconsin Constitution's webpage—includes a strong, affirmative right to vote under ARTICLE III, Suffrage vis a vis the United States Constitution. (Hence, U.S. Reps. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Keith Ellison's (D-MN) Right to Vote Amendment, explicitly guaranteeing Americans' right to vote in the U.S. Constitution." Hey, Rep. Sensenbrenner (R-White People), still waiting for your support of the Right to Vote Amendment in light of your unshakable commitment of voting rights.

3. The Wisconsin Constitution explicitly specifies the type of laws that may be enacted to regulate elections, enumerating the specific conditions under which the qualifications of voters (electors) may be changed by the enactment of laws under Section 2, and only Section 2. Anything outside this scope and the legislature has to change the Wisconsin Constitution.

This GOP pretension that the federal case, Crawford, controls Wisconsin state voting rights case is a disingenuous political talking point, hawked by Wisconsin's GOP Attorney General, J.B. Van Hollen and other GOP politicos.

As Judge David T. Flanagan writes in striking down the GOP Photo Voter ID bill in July 2012 in Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP v. Walker (Case 11CV5492):

The Crawford decision has very little application to the dispute now before this Court, however, for three primary reasons. First, this case is founded up the Wiscosnin Constitution which expressly guarantees the right to vote, while Crawford was based upon the U.S. Constitution which offers no such guarantee. Second, the Indiana law is less rigid than Act 23, and noted by the U.S. Supreme Court, offered alternative voting opportunities to voters who lacked the Photo ID. Finally, Crawford came to the Court based upon a flawed factual record, lacking the substantial evidence that has been offered by the plaintiffs in this action. This case is based on a claim that Act 23 violates the Wisconsin Constitution, not the U.S. Constitution. The people of Wisconsin may choose to assure to themselves rights under their own constitution that differ or exceed those guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution, State v. Doe, 78 Wis 2d 161, 172 (1977). The question of what is permitted and what is protected by the Wisconsin Constitution is the issue before this court and that issue was not before the U.S. Supreme Court in the Crawford case.

This is not the first time Van Hollen and the Republican Party have lied about federal law and federal case law in order to obstruct voting rights on the state level.

See Van Hollen's and the GOP 2008 efforts at voter suppression in which Van Hollen's similarly ridiculous effort was tossed out of court.

In the 2008 case, (J B Van Hollen vs. Government Accountability Board (GAB) et al) Van Hollen tried to create a new Wisconsin constitutional qualification to vote by fiat: A perfect match of the spelling of voters' names in state bureaucracies, after assuring fellow Republicans he would commence this frivolous legal action at the 2008 Republican National Convention held in Minneapolis, as first reported by WisPolitics in a scoop that includes audio.

Several former judges serving on the GAB Board would have failed Van Hollen's new constitutional standard proposed in 2008, as this GOP effort drew wide ridicule.

"Nothing in state or federal law requires that there be a data match as a prerequisite for a citizen's right to vote," Judge Maryann Sumi said in dismissing Van Hollen's lawsuit that tried to use the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) as a voter suppression tool.

Our corrupt attorney general, up for reelection on 2014, will not give up his Party's project of denying the voting rights of Wisconsin citizens; and neither will the Republican Party now holding sway in the gerrymandered state legislature, and it would appear in the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB). 

Non-GOP-fixed Section III on the Wisconsin Constitution on Suffrage - Voting