Stories to Watch: 5/12/12

Heading out to do some recall work today. Not sure how long it will take, but I'm writing off the rest of the day. And, coincidentally, the first item in today's post is recall related. Now here's the news...


This one's kind of stupid; after video was discovered showing Gov. Walker discussing his "divide and conquer" strategy as a "first step" to building a "completely red state" with a billionaire donor who wants restrictive laws for private-sector unions, Wisconsin State Journal runs an article about how the state GOP has absolutely no plans to make Wisconsin a "right to work" state.

But here's the thing; that video was shot before Walker introduced his union-buster, before all the protests and the occupation of the capital, and -- mostly importantly -- before Republicans lost control of the senate through attrition and a series of recalls. Of course they have no plans to push for more union-busting legislation -- now. It'd be doomed from the get-go. The question is, was that the plan then, before everything blew apart? If dividing and conquering with an attack on collective bargaining was the "first step," what was supposed to be the next?

WSJ's piece answers none of those questions -- and mostly because it never even asks them. At least they let Tom Barrett have the last word. Otherwise, I'm not extremely impressed with this reporting.


***
Over at The Capital Times, the editorial board has other questions that need to be answered, but haven't even been raised:

1. Why [Walker] told a campaign donor about his plan to attack unions before he told his own Cabinet and the people of Wisconsin.

2. Why he discussed breaking unions as part of a strategy to make Wisconsin a "red (Republican) state."

3. What ongoing conversations he has had with Hendricks.

4. What he has done in return for her unprecedented campaign donations.

And there is one more question.

Gov. Walker's campaign shifted $60,000 from his campaign fund to the governor's criminal defense fund. The donor whose money was shifted to the criminal defense fund had to approve that transfer of money.

Only a handful of Walker contributors gave a sufficient amount of money to fund a $60,000 transfer.

Was Diane Hendricks the donor who authorized that transfer of money? And did the governor discuss his legal problems with her?

Probably not questions Team Walker would be comfortable answering.


***
Opposing marriage equality is becoming a political loser faster than Republicans may realize.


Mittens flip-flops again. His support of same-sex adoption had a shelf-life of one day.


Rand Paul is not a Libertarian.


Paul Krugman asks excellent questions: will JPMorgan's fiasco be investigated by Republicans to the same degree as Solyndra? And if not, why? I think we all know the answers to both.


Finally, the GOP wants to move beyond all this culture war stuff against women and gays and Girls Scouts and what-have-you and get to work on jobs. The White House couldn't agree more -- so expect the GOP's talk to turn out to be empty rhetoric.

Related articles

• Scott Walker Admits to Wanting to Divide Wisconsin
• New Video: Scott Walker Called Budget Bill 'First Step' Of Anti-Union Strategy
• Walker kicks off Wisconsin GOP convention

Stories to Watch: 1/17/12

It was a wonderful day in Wisconsin (see below). Now here's the news...


It was a big day in my little city. Recall petitions were delivered to the capital -- a literal ton of them and accounting for more than one million signatures. A reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal says that the head of the Government Accountability Board (GAB) is having trouble finding workers to check the signatures, because one of the requirements is that the temps can't have signed the petition. That's how successful this petition drive has been. There are more such nuggets of info at WSJ's live blog of the filing, as well as a photo gallery here.


Chuck Grassley is a freakin' moron.


Handy tip: when you're trying to convince people you're not a hate group, it helps to refrain from acting exactly like a hate group.


Team Obama is already pricing TV ads.


Things that are bad to the GOP base: having a Mexican ancestry.


Rick Perry sparks an international incident by being stupid on the teevee. His campaign tries to clean up the mess, but it's pretty hopeless.


After realizing that not releasing his tax records created a bigger problem than it solved (i.e., the "Streisand Effect"), Mittens reveals his taxes are a ridiculously low 15% and says he'll release his records this spring.


Finally, Young Lee -- the co-founder of the Pinkberry yogurt chain -- is an awful, awful person.

Related articles

• Wis. recall leaders claim more than 1M signatures - USA TODAY (content.usatoday.com)
• Griper Blade: Scott Walker's Taxpayer-Funded Bailout (gripernews.blogspot.com)
• Perry Comment Roils Turkish Foreign Ministry: We Joined NATO 'When The Governor Was 2 Years Old' (thinkprogress.org)
• Perry: Turkey Is Run By "Islamic Terrorists" (alan.com)

Stories to Watch: 4/10/11

Sunday. Baking bread. What else is new? Now here's the news...


The left isn't extremely pleased with the budget deal. Drastically reducing spending means reducing demand during an economic recovery. Not the smartest thing anyone's ever done. The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof is especially harsh; "It’s unclear where the adults are, but they don’t seem to be in Washington. Beyond the malice of the threat to shut down the federal government, averted only at the last minute on Friday night, it’s painful how vapid the discourse is and how incompetent and cowardly our leaders have proved to be." He lays the blame both on Democrats and Republicans -- with the lion's share going to the GOP. Krugman points out that the deal -- since it includes extending tax cuts for the top one or two percent -- actually increases the deficit and that the Obama administration seems to be following the same political strategy that served them so poorly just last year.


Todays "The GOP's 2012 field keeps getting more ridiculous" news: Sarah Palin dips a toe in the birther waters.


Meanwhile, the White House is pleased that nutjobs like Donald Trump poll well with Republican voters. "I saw Donald Trump kind of rising in some polls and given his behavior and spectacle the last couple of weeks, I hope he keeps on rising," adviser David Plouffe said in an interview. "There is zero chance that Donald Trump would ever be hired by the American people to do this job."


Way, way, way after it matters, the Wisconsin State Journal runs a story examining Gov. Walker's claim that the state is "broke." The verdict: it depends on who you ask. If you ask Walker, we're broke. If you ask any objective observer, we're fine. This is the "two sides to every story" crap taken to the extreme -- they examine a claim by Republicans by asking experts and Republicans whether it's true. Result: no consensus, so who even knows? It's a big Scooby-Doo mystery. And way to strike that iron while it's still hot, guys. Still, Republican claims don't come out looking very good in the end.


GOPer: "Stop being mean to Big Oil!"


Finally, Eric Cantor gives away the GOP's not so secret plan: " We'll protect today's seniors and those nearing retirement, but for the rest of us, all of us, who are 54 and younger, I know the programs [i.e., Medicare and Social Security] are not going to be there for me when I retire."

News Roundup for 4/6/11

A win is a win

-Headline of the day-
"Kloppenburg declares victory over Prosser in Supreme Court race."

The race that came to be seen as a proxy war between Gov. Scott Walker and pretty much everyone else has produced a winner. JoAnne Kloppenburg defeated incumbent Justice David Prosser in a stunning come-from-behind victory with a decisive landslide of... 204 votes. The next time someone tells you that every vote counts, nod knowingly, 'cause it's so true.

The race went all freakin' night -- back and forth, back and forth, until everyone was tired of it -- as districts overwhelmed by high turnout struggled to get a vote count out while it was still election night. Three failed. Two Milwaukee County districts and one Jefferson County district were left when I checked this morning. While the Jefferson County vote had been leaning strongly toward Prosser, when the remaining district finally came in it reflected the rest of the state -- Prosser closed the gap by only two votes. With only Milwaukee County left, it was all but hopeless.

Then Milwaukee County finally came in and, yeah, it was hopeless. With nothing left to count, Kloppenburg took the prize.

For now. The Prosser campaign says they'll file for a recount, which they can have done at state expense, since the vote total is so close. So who knows, really?

Still, round one goes to Kloppenburg. And the people of Wisconsin. (Wisconsin State Journal)


-Not good, not good...-
Apparently, GOP presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty's campaign staff is dedicated. While everyone else is asleep, they're still out there pounding the pavement and knocking on doors -- which is weird because, as I said, everyone else is asleep.

According to the report, "A 15-year-old [Iowa] girl found a campaign worker from Alabama banging on her Ankeny family's back door early Wednesday morning" -- "early" being three in the morning. Apparently, the T-Paw worker, Benjamin Foster, was doing some sort of creepy Night of the Living Dead impression. At least, that's what I got out of the girl's description of it.

"His arm was in my back door, trying to get in and I screamed and went upstairs to my parents room and I continued screaming," she said.

Cops were called and Foster was taken in for "public intoxication and trespassing." No word on what the fuck he thought he was doing.

For his part, Pawlenty says he's "extremely disappointed" in Foster and fired his sorry ass on the...

Oops! Misread that. Pawlenty has place him "on a two-week unpaid suspension."

That'll learn him. (KCCI, with video)


-Bonus HotD-
"Bachmann: Why I'm qualified to be president."

"As you know, when Abraham Lincoln founded this country in 317 BC, he had the help of Jesus, Superman, and a bag of magic beans..." (The Hill)

Stories to Watch: 3/7/11

I came across an interesting piece at The Altantic, but it needs a lot of background, so bear with me here.

In the battle over Scott Walker's budget fiasco, Republican state Senator Dale Schultz has bravely staked out the middle of the road. In a move that he labels a "compromise," he's been pushing -- with the help of the Wisconsin State Journal -- a really boneheaded idea.

Basically, Shultz's idea works this way: unions accept the concessions they've already made and Republicans agree to sunset a ban on collective bargaining after a year. You see the problem right? Since unions make the concessions, there's really no need for the ban -- it's pointless.

Or so it would seem. Anyone who's watched the PATRIOT Act become a cornerstone of American life knows that once government takes your rights away, it's really hard to get them back. Schultz would have us put this whole argument on the backburner for a year, after which it'll all come up again. Excuse me if I have my doubts that Republicans are going to be less insane in a year. Still, everyone in the media has been pushing this as the "sensible middle ground," ignoring the fact that the premise -- that collective bargaining must be banned -- makes no damned sense at all if unions agree to the concessions.

Anyway, The Atlantic's Natasha Vargas-Cooper attended a Schultz town hall in Reedsburg and found that, despite the media line that he's the only "reasonable" guy here, his plan is wildly unpopular with his constituents -- who apparently see through it as easily as I did. According to her report, when Senator Dale spelled out his plan, "The word 'no' reverberated loudly through the crowd, while many others shook their heads silently."

"After hearing you speak," one constituent said to Schultz, "I've decided to become a Democrat." Schultz is considered the Republican most likely to cave and, judging from the article, it's easy to see why.

Now here's (the rest of) the news...

***

Scandal-plagued Republican Senator John Ensign decides losing reelection isn't worth the headache.


Continuing what seems like an endless stream of disappointments, the Obama administration is going to restart military tribunals at Gitmo.


Experts call bullshit on John Boehner's claim that the United States is "broke."


Ick. ThinkProgress has video of Sen. Scott Brown begging David Koch for money.


Republicans in the states try a back door repeal to the 26th Amendment, which gives eighteen year-olds the right to vote. In New Hampshire, one moron comes right out and says it's because young people vote liberal.


Finally, Democrats have already raised over $200,000 to recall Wisconsin GOP senators. See you at the ballot box, guys.

Stories to Watch: 3/6/11

I made a bunch of sourdough pancakes earlier this week and froze them. Turned out great -- you just throw them in the toaster like those toaster-waffle-things and you're good to go. My breakfasts have improved immeasurably. Now here's the news...


Tennessee joins in the labor fight.


Most ridiculous item of the day: an editorial in the Sunday edition of the Wisconsin State Journal praises Scott Walker for getting tough with deficits and spending, saying, "Walker is largely doing in his budget proposal what he said he'd do: Fix the budget mess without raising taxes."

The problem? WSJ's own front page contradicts that with a story about a tax-hike on low-income families to cover giveaways to businesses. Since when does "largely" mean "not?"


It's Sunday, so that means it's time to have President McCain on a Sunday talk show. He comes on, says something completely wrong, and goes to find the signup sheet for next week's shift.


The Republican push to keep people out of the voting booth. The good news for me; the Wisconsin Republican version of voter ID is so poorly written and thought out that it amounts to a poll tax. "The legislation, as written, appeared to have constitutional problems that would shred it in court," wrote Dave Weigel Thursday. Keep overreaching for the stars, GOP! Democrats will thank you.


Finally, Gov. Walker lays off thousands. Oops! Messed that up... Governor Walker pretends to lay off thousands. The Wisconsin GOP have really been running a doorbuster sale on threats lately.

Stories to Watch: 2/19/11

So I wake up this morning, open the city's only print daily, and discover that coverage of the protests here are about 75% anti-union BS. It's not surprising, since the Wisconsin State Journal has always been the city's conservative paper, completely out of step with the community it serves. From now on, get your Madison protest news from The Capital Times. It's got top-flight reporting, it's updated throughout the day, and the price is right -- free. Give them your traffic. Now here's the news...


Speaking of the CapTimes, the paper is reporting that the right is painting protests in Madison as "riots" and "chaos in the streets." Bullshit, it's a love fest here and family-friendly. Wanna free bratwurst?


In related news, Gov. Scott Walker's starting to lose the support of the business community. That ought to give him pause.


A leaked book manuscript from a former Sarah Palin aide tells us what we pretty much already know about her days as governor -- and about her today -- Palin is venal, vindictive, and knowingly broke the law.


Just a reminder: Arizona still has an actual, honest-to-goodness government death panel and Republicans love it.


I've been handing out this link to people for days. Now, One Wisconsin Now is distributing it too. Long story short, Wisconsin public employees are not overcompensated. Once again, math hates Republicans.


Gearing up for a big budget fight and almost certain government shutdown, President Obama puts education front and center. Smart move, if you ask me. Republicans don't seem to realize it, but people are real. I've long held that conservatives like people a lot more when they happen to be hypothetical.


Finally, new RNC chair Reince Priebus picks up where the last clown left off. He sends out a letter calling peaceful protesters in Madison "union thugs." Words mean things, Reince. Why do you hate the English language?