MAL Contends . . .

GOP-Tea Party Extemists on Display

2013-05-17T09:47:00.001-05:00

Tea Party Rally in Madison, Wisconsin
Photo by Jesse Russell

Update: Ron Brownstein writes, "polarization is even worse now, owing to Obama derangement syndrome and tea party hubris," that may backfire on the GOP.

From a purely political perspective, the Democratic Party is salivating at the prospect that House Ways and Means Committee Chair Dave Camp (R-Michigan) and some Tea Party company are charging the White House as guilty of a "culture of cover-ups and political intimidation" in the GOP hearings.

The IRS checking into billionaire-funded AstroTurf schemes using 501(c)(4) status to further electoral objectives feeds into the crazed, rightwing fantasies about President Obama.

And Repubs like Rep. Camp just need to keep on talking, spouting every loony theory of which they are capable.

Scott Walker's Dismal Failure on Jobs

2013-05-17T07:22:00.001-05:00

Lie, lie and deny.

Some call it spinning.

Scott Walker's continuing failure on jobs is met with celebration by Republicans and Tea Baggers.

Reports Rick Romell:

'These are exciting times in Wisconsin,' Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said in a statement. 'Our economy is back on track and jobs are being created across the state.'

Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) and other Democrats pointed to Wisconsin's job-creating record compared against other states - 44th by the most recent data available.

'If Republicans spent half as much time creating jobs as they do spinning lackluster job numbers, Wisconsin might not be falling so far behind in job creation,' Barca said in a statement.

Wisconsin's economy is back on track?

Right, and Scott Walker's friend, Tim Russell, is an avid veterans' advocate.

Cognitive Dissidence has the story, and it's not so "exciting," if a healthy economy is considered stimulating.

The following two graphs illustrate Scott Walker and the Republicans' dismal jobs reality—reality, that liberal, empirical world so frightening to the minds of the GOP.

The Real IRS Scandal—AstroTurf Schemes Using 501(c)(4) Foul-up

2013-05-16T08:26:00.001-05:00

Astroturf front, Americans for Prosperity

Clare Kim and Lawrence O'Donnell have the story on what's up with the IRS.

And it's not persecuted Tea Baggers.

It's the AstroTurf schemes using 501(c)(4) status resulting from a 1959 screw-up that lets the Koch brothers and Karl Rove funnel money ripping off taxpayers.

From The Last Word:

Internal Revenue Service agents have been struggling to do their jobs–which have been made essentially impossible by an incorrect interpretation of the law that the IRS made in 1959. It was then that the IRS changed the language of the law without any authority to do so. Here is how the tax law was written in its latest update in 1954 on 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations. The 501(c)(4) designation was to apply only to: “Civic leagues or organizations not organized for profit but operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare.”

But a 1959 interpretation guideline written by the IRS says that: ”To be operated exclusively to promote social welfare, an organization must operate primarily to further the common good and general welfare…”

With absolutely no legal oversight, the IRS changed the world “exclusively” to mean “primarily” and then the IRS never defined what it meant by primarily. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell explains that the tax code must be enforced with the word “exclusively” so that no political organizations would ever be able to get 501(c)(4) status. “No Tea Party organizations, no Democratic party organizations, no Republican party organizations, no Libertarian party organizations, no party organizations of any kind should ever get 501(c)(4) status and that is exactly what the law already says,” O’Donnell said Wednesday night.

On a related note, see Hey, Mitch McConnell. Let me see if I got this right: "When the IRS hassles Tea Party groups, it's wrong. When they hassle the NAACP and environmental groups, it's OK."

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Scott Walker's Broken Promises

2013-05-16T06:58:00.002-05:00

Not working

"[E]very initiative that's undertaken and every program that's administered will be examined for its effect on jobs. Every decision must be considered in the context of what it means for job creation and economic recovery."
- Scott Walker's 2010 Campaign Site

A reformist Wisconsin press committed to good government, holding politicians accountable, and reporting the truth would be giving Scott Walker failing grades in fulfilling campaign promises, accusing him of deceit or incompetence on a massive scale.

But don't look at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's PolitiFact's "Walk-O-Meter: Tracking the promises of Scott Walker" for such a scale.

Politifact is a scam, a newspaper gimmick flacking for Walker's most important promise: 250,000 new jobs, rated by Politifact as "in the works."

Walker's 250,000 is constantly spun by this dishonest administration, and Walker's performance is found wanting.

Here's the Capital Times database keeping track of the 250,000 jobs mark. Wisconsin is bringing up the rear among our neighboring states.

Such data should be kept by every media outlet.

In fact Wisconsin has dropped down to 44th in the nation in creating private-sector jobs.

Walker also made a promise to "(s)trip policy and pork projects from the state budget," another broken promise that even some Republicans are calling Walker on, as noted by Bill Lueders in Isthmus.

Consider taxes. Walker hiked taxes on seniors and working families by nearly $70 million, as noted by Melissa Baldauff.

Education, check out Walker's 2010 site; in fact pick any issue and Walker has failed miserably.

But the jobs promise is the most egregious of Walker's broken promises, aka lies:

Presenting Scott Walker's 68 Page Plan to Create 250,000 Jobs

After Scott's big primary victory, he has been traveling the state to spread the word about his plan to get government out of the way to allow the private sector to create 250,000 jobs during his first term. ...

One could talk about Walker's secret agenda as well.

About that "Cline Group’s Wisconsin-based subsidiary Gogebic Taconite’s proposed $1.5 billion open pit iron mine in the Penokee Range south of Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin’s Ashland and Iron counties."

That's one hell of bomb to drop on the Wisconsin people.

Rep. Mark Pocan Calls for Right to Vote for all Americans

2013-05-15T08:25:00.000-05:00

Rep. Mark Pocan and text of the
Right to Vote proposed Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution

From Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison):

"Just dropped my bill that would amend the Constitution to guarantee a Right to Vote for all Americans. As the world’s leading democracy, the United States much demand of ourselves what we demand of others—a guaranteed, affirmative, right to vote for all."

The text of the proposed amendment reads:

SECTION 1: Every citizen of the United States, who is of legal voting age, shall have the fundamental right to vote in any public election held in the jurisdiction in which the citizen resides.

SECTION 2: Congress shall have the power to enforce and implement this article by appropriate legislation.

Who could possibly be against this?

Republicans and Tea Baggers.

People start voting en masse, and Republicans see their political fortunes, in their foolish view, as declining.

Though not widely known, voting is not that well protected in the U.S. Constitution. That's why Republican attacks against voting remain.

And that's why the "party on the brink of destroying the Voting Rights Act" (Rich) fears voting by Americans, and representative democracy.

Instead, Republicans privately brag of dropping bombs on the American people in an effort to consolidate power. Will Republicans walk the walk on American democracy and support this bill?

"The right to vote is the foundation of any democracy,” said Rob Richie, Executive Director of FairVote. “Adding an affirmative right to vote to the U.S. Constitution is the best way to guarantee that the government, whether at the federal, state, or local level, cannot infringe upon our individual right to vote. Building support for this amendment offers an opportunity to inspire a 21st century suffrage movement where Americans come together to protect voting rights, promote voter participation and debate suffrage expansion."

White House Did Not Know of DoJ Secret Seizure of Associated Press Records

2013-05-14T08:10:00.000-05:00

Attorney General John Mitchell [Correction: That's Eric Holder]

Update III: The attorney general seems to be proud of how little he knows about the AP and IRS scandals (though the IRS affair is no scandal), writes Milbank.

Update II: Holder says he recused himself from phone records seizure, begging the question who is running the U.S. DoJ. Greenwald calls the Justice Department's pursuit of AP's phone records both extreme and dangerous. Civil liberties groups and journalists blast the action.

Update: See Turley's Nixonian or Obamaesque? Obama Administration Spied on Associated Press Editors and Reporters

There came a man who did not know.

When President Obama nominated Eric Holder to serve as the 82nd attorney general of the United States in 2009, voters had every right to expect a jurist committed to the rule of law and protecting the liberties of American citizens.

As each story of DoJ prosecutorial misconduct appears amid the near abandonment of an activist U.S. Dept of Justice, Civil Rights division seeking out bad political players in protection of civil liberties, the latest revelation that the U.S. Justice Department secretly obtained the phone records of the Associated Press reporters and editors is more than troubling.

Wow, secretly obtaining records. How did the DoJ do that, one might wonder. Secret warrants?

As Buzzfeed's Ben Smith writes, "Less than four months into President Barack Obama’s second term, the hazy perception of a government reaching further and further into individuals’ lives in an era of broad new technological surveillance and power has turned into what may be the defining critique of his Administration."

Here's the Monday evening statement from White House Press Secretary Jay Carney (from The Atlantic, and not to be found on the White House site) explaining:

Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the AP. We are not involved in decisions made in connection with criminal investigations, as those matters are handled independently by the Justice Department. Any questions about an ongoing criminal investigation should be directed to the Department of Justice.

Who knew defending the Fourth Amendment and being President was so difficult?

As noted in The Hill, not our president and not our attorney general.

"The AP believes the records seizure was related to a leak investigation regarding a 2012 story about the CIA foiling a bomb plot in Yemen. The Obama administration has aggressively investigated the disclosure of classified anti-terror information in recent years, subpoenaing journalists from the New York Times and Washington Post."

A leak? So, the DoJ is like plumbers ... fixing the leaks.

Notes Philip Bump: "In a letter of protest sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, AP President Gary Pruitt said there could be 'no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications.'"

Well, the Obama U.S. DoJ is better than a Romney-Ryan DoJ would be, I think.

Justice Ginsberg Way-off on Roe v. Wade

2013-05-13T08:08:00.001-05:00

Time for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg to get off the Court

What ahistorical spasms have taken ahold of Justice Ginsberg?

"Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1993-present) told an audience at the University of Chicago Law School on Saturday night that a lack of 'judicial restraint' in the court’s ruling on Roe v. Wade gave abortion opponents a 'clear target' that continues to fuel anti-choice activism 40 years later," notes Katie McDonough this morning in Salon.

A clear target?

Women have been the clear target of the Catholic Church hierarchy and free roaming misogyny since the inception of the United States of America.

Roe stopped the enforcement of anti-choice state laws outlawing abortion.

Salon's McDonough also references similar comments that Ginsberg made in April:

As noted by the New York Times editorial board and Yale Law School professors Linda Greenhouse and Reva Siegel, Ginsburg’s previously-asserted idea that the court got 'ahead of public opinion' on abortion and 'short-circuited' an evolving political process at the state level is deeply problematic.

If one follows Ginsberg's logic, the Court should never protect the constitutional rights of minorities in the face of majority opinion because that would make political targets of minorities by assorted majority bigots and oppressive, tyrannical law of which America has a long, shameful tradition.

Ginsberg goes on pursuing several lines of thought, all of which do not demonstrate a clear hold of any conception of the civil rights of Americans, and certainly not specifically the constitutional imperative to protect free choice, an issue that props up the GOP and Tea Party as major political forces.

Ginsberg's public forays into political strategy are ill-conceived and foolish for a sitting justice of the Court, and her constitutional jurisprudence is suspect.

Ginsberg is 80-year-old.

And she is no William O. Douglas or Robert Jackson. Ginsberg should resign at the end of term in June.

The stakes are way too high with this reckless, statist Roberts-Scalia court and the forces of authoritarianism that hold sway in the majority of states.

Scott Walker's Bombs Include Obliterating Community Control

2013-05-12T08:11:00.001-05:00

Christopher Cline's Mega Mansion in North Palm Beach
Mining mogul Cline has his eyes set on northern Wisconsin's iron ore,
but Cline will not appear in person before community boards
concerned about environmental disasters and massive pollution.
The trip to Wisconsin from Palm Beach might interfere with Cline's life.
Cline is an avid mega yacht enthusiast - northern Wisconsin is not his place.
Cline famously sold his $27-million yacht, the 161-foot Mine Games,
because Cline had a larger boat on order, so don't expect Cline to
come up before some County Board and community panels to justify
his company coming in and destroying a near-pristine environment.
The man's too busy for Wisconsin.

Scott Walker never campaigned on taking away the liberty of workers to organise.

Walker never campaigned on taking away local control of communities to set policies protecting citizens, protecting its schools, and local environments.

Walker never campaigned on taking away a women's right to choose, or closing Planned Parenthood centers serving women's health care.

But only two years into Walker's administration, these rights and many others lie in ruin, as if hit by a depleted uranium shell air strike from a corrupt administration literally targeting its own citizens in service to huge-moneyed interests.

It would be nice to hear to voices of opposition on every medium, every street corner. But the guns of opposition have gone virtually silent. For now. Citizen action is gathering and war plans are being made.

Walker won't back down—because he's so brave (ask him)—from taking away the power of communities enacting residency requirements for their local employees.

Walker and the GOP are sneaking the anti-residency provision into the state budget, against almost unanimous opposition from community mayors, village presidents, town managers and other elected municipal representatives.

As more extreme, severe-weather events occur, Walker's usurpation could have another unforeseen effect, at least an uncared-about effect.

Said Larry Arft, City Manager in Beloit, Wisconsin: "Don’t forget, public works employees are also first responders. Winter storm events, summer rain storms, wind storms, we have people on call for our utilities. 24/7 somebody has to be on call and they need to be there in a few minutes."

Not Walker's concern.

If communities start passing laws protecting their land in any capacity, how can out-of-state billionaires strip the land? What would be next, stopping fracking?

Walker is getting set to cash in on his work for billionaires and out-of-state interests who could not care less if Wisconsin tips over and falls into Lake Michigan, as long as the Christopher Clines (a pure bastard of a man hooked up with the Carlyle Group) and the Koch brothers get their hands on our resources, the Wisconsin people and our public land and waters be damned.

Obama Will Stop Keystone XL Pipeline, Says Climate Change Godfather

2013-05-10T09:22:00.000-05:00

Oglala Sioux Tribal President Bryan Brewer joined about 300 people
in a nonviolent direct-action training called Moccasins on the Ground
held recently in preparation for stopping the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline.

Update: Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations Surpass 400 PPM Milestone, for the first time in human history, reports NOAA.

James Hansen, known as the "Godfather of Climate Change," writes in a new commentary on his Columbia University Web site that he believes President Obama will stop the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline.

The Keystone XL Pipeline is opposed by environmentalists, climate scientists, and many Native American activists because the emissions from energy products produced from the tar sands "gook," as accurately described by Dr. Hansen, would inject into the atmosphere "more than twice the carbon from all of the oil burned in human history."

Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth about the
Coming Climate Catastrophe and
Our Last Chance to Save Humanity

Hansen compares the production and burning of energy products from tar sands as "equivalent to burning coal to power your automobile. . . ."

Concludes Hansen: "The common presumption that President Obama is going to approve the Keystone XL pipeline is wrong, in my opinion. The State Department must provide an assessment to President Obama. Secretary of State John Kerry is expert on the climate issue and has long been one of the most thoughtful members of our government. I cannot believe that Secretary Kerry would let his and President Obama's legacies go down the tar sands drain."

Carl Sagan once said of protecting our climate from nuclear catastrophe: "We can safeguard the planetary civilization and the human family if we so choose."

I wonder how firmly such sentiment resides in President Obama. The answer is not clear at this point. Tell the president that the XL pipeline needs to be stopped.

Read the Oglala Sioux news and understand that the fate of our planet, literally, rests in the actions of our president and what we, as citizens of the world, do to protect our planet for the sake of all of our grandchildren. You better believe the energy extraction industry and the Republican Party don't care, and are intent on destruction on a planetary scale.

As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. writes of the politics of Big Oil and the Republican Party: "[T]here is nothing patriotic, moral or religious about Big Oil. A storied history of perfidy and greed has distinguished these companies among the most treasonous and piratical of all American business enterprises."

It’s Time to Out Sen. Lindsey Graham, says John Aravosis

2013-05-10T07:03:00.001-05:00

Lindsey Graham celebrating the anti-gay
Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day

John Aravosis has the story:

"It’s time to finally out Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Graham has had it coming for a while now."

Not because he’s a Republican. But because he’s an anti-gay Republican. And while it’s one thing to be gay and a closet case, it’s quite another to be a hypocrite, an anti-gay gay, someone who uses his power to harm others in the name of 'morality,' all the while knowing secretly that he is one of the others."

Good for Aravosis.

Self-loathing Repulsivecans like Graham have to be called on their craziness when they take aim and harm others to sustain their political power in the sick collection of assorted whacks who comprise most of today's Republican Party.

Roofers and Home Improvement Can Sustain Economy

2013-05-09T12:16:00.001-05:00

Roofing season begins

Update II: In this week’s address, President Obama said seven years after the real estate bubble burst, our housing market is healing.

Update: Local home builders say they are looking for workers

As politicians do their thing, early-in-the-season Wisconsin roofers and contractors are out doing their thing, as spring showers permit.

A recovering housing market and a recovering economy result in many homeowners making improvements to their current housing by replacing or repairing their homes' roofs.

A higher incidence of intense storm events, as our country is experiencing as the climate changes, amplifies this dynamic.

Talk to any large insurance executive, and they'll tell you a series of hail storms can inflict some serious damage to Americans' homes.

But damage and economic instability result in economic activity in other realms such as the roofing industry.

A positive aspect of the economic malaise is small to medium-sized roofers—often self-made men and women—still believe very long hours and extremely hard work generate the fulfillment of the American Dream.

One such self-made man is Derek Myhand, owner of a roofing business in Monticello, Wisconsin.

Myhand can be found this mid-May in Fitchburg, Baraboo, and anywhere in Wisconsin where homeowners want work on their homes -- including roofs, home siding, gutters, almost anything.

Working first light until dawn, Myhand was asked this week how he manages to haul around 80-pound squares of shingles, roof a house, and pay exacting attention to detail.

"It's what I do," said Myhand. "I was raised on a farm; been in the business since I was a kid. It's early for roofing, but that why I get the work."

Residents and joggers in the Jamestown neighborhood of Fitchburg watching Myhand do a three-day job on a roof this week never saw him eat, or take a break and several neighbors talking have collectively named him, "the Terminator" after watching him strip a roof last Monday.

Citizens are convinced this guy is human; and if anyone wants to talk to him for business (recommended highly), Myhand can be reached at (608) 214-5802 or ultimateexteriorsllc@gmail.com.

What Will Scott Walker Do to Wisconsin Next

2013-05-06T08:41:00.001-05:00

Dismal news update from Wisconsin: The Republicans are proceeding full-speed ahead on their number one mission: Keeping power.

Despite the broken promise of massive job creation (anyone sentient knew Walker's 2010 250,000 new jobs pledge was dishonest), the Wisconsin GOP has a host of new election bills designed to keep connected to moneyed interests funding GOP campaigns, further destroy local community control, and make Scott Walker appear to be presidential material.

The Wisconsin Democratic Party remains an ineffectual voice of opposition, a fact that Republicans appreciate; and to be candid, this situation looks not to change any time soon.

There doesn't seem to be experienced contenders on the horizon to challenge Walker, Johnson, or any number of other Republican incumbents. Rumor has it that Russ Feingold will challenge Ron Johnson to take back his Senate seat -- and that is good news indeed.

Unless Wisconsin Democrats suddenly morph into a compelling unified voice of and for the people, not much to report from Wisconsin beyond the slow-motion death of good government, public education. community control, and the environment.

Consequently, soon tourism will begin to fall, and Minnesota (the home of bat-shit crazy Michele Bachmann) will become the go-to place for affordable, quick get-aways for Midwestern families.

Not Working

Muslim Iraq War Vet Attacked by Bigoted Scum in D.C.—Ed Dahlberg

2013-05-02T09:11:00.003-05:00

Mohamed A. Salim, attacked by Ed Dahlberg
because Salim is a Muslim

Update: Incredibly, Jonathan Turley points out, Ed Dahlberg has not at this point been charged with a hate crime, or even a felony. Notes Turley: "I fail to see why such a serious assault would need the hate crime element to be elevated to a felony. However, here is the [hate crime] provision":

18.2-57. Assault and battery.
...
B. However, if a person intentionally selects the person against whom an assault and battery resulting in bodily injury is committed because of his race, religious conviction, color or national origin, the person shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony, and the penalty upon conviction shall include a term of confinement of at least six months, 30 days of which shall be a mandatory minimum term of confinement.
---
Ed Dahlberg, an American bigot, attacked a Muslim Iraq War veteran, (from behind of course) after learning that the veteran was a Muslim, as the veteran drove a cab and Dahlberg sat in the back seat after being picked up at a northern Virgina country club.

Wonder what kind of country club accepts slime like Dahlberg.

Dahlberg was dropped off, and then attacked the veteran again.

Joe Stephens and Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post have the story, with video. Report Stephens and Jouvenal:

An Army reservist and Iraq veteran who works as a cabdriver says a passenger he picked up early Friday at a Northern Virginia country club accused him of being a terrorist because he is Muslim, then fractured his jaw in an attack being described by Islamic activists as a hate crime.

Mohamed A. Salim says the passenger compared him to the men accused of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombing 11 days earlier and threatened to kill him.

'Because I’m a Muslim, he treated me like a piece of trash,' Salim said. 'I love this country. I didn’t deserve this.' ...

Muslim rights workers said Salim’s account is supported by medical records and an 11-minute, obscenity-filled video of Dahlberg’s remarks leading up to the alleged assault. Salim, a 39-year-old from Great Falls, provided The Washington Post with a copy, which his attorney described as evidence of the prejudice that others sometimes face but rarely document.

Prosecutors should make an example of self-appointed avengers like Dahlberg.

When bigots like Dahlberg attack innocent Americans, a veteran no less, one hopes for some special type of treatment for this dangerous hate crime.

Note to Mr. Salim: After the criminal justice system eats up this punk, Dahlberg, commence a civil action and sue Dahlberg for everything he has.

Dahlberg owns Manassas, Virginia-based Emerald Aviation. Its website reads: "Maintenance Mode Emerald Aviation is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance. Please try back in 3 days, 5 hours, and 13 minutes (on May 5, 2013 at 3:35 pm). Sorry for the inconvenience." Right.

"Ed Dahlberg, President. Ed Dahlberg, President of Emerald Aviation Inc., has more than 20 years experience in the field of business and commercial aviation," reads a Google description.

Anybody doing business with Dahlberg and Emerald Aviation should be ashamed.

"I sacrificed for this country," Salim told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday. "And I myself was fighting the terrorists and I’m against acts of violence. I’m not a terrorist. I’m not a jihadist. I’m American like you." (Raw Story)

Had the pleasure of speaking with Muslim U.S. military veterans before. It's the same story. Their service, their risking their lives mean nothing to bigots like Dahlberg.

Wisconsin GOP: Not Lawful Is No Problem

2013-04-30T09:37:00.002-05:00

If Republicans pass a bill into law that is unlawful and unconstitutional, and furthermore is found to be irreparably harmful to Wisconsin citizens by a circuit court judge who subsequently halts implementation (issues an injunction) of the law; then that the law is on hold until a higher court rules or another order rules otherwise.

This is a fundamental check of the judicial branch of government on the other two branches, needed especially when the two branches are temporarily occupied by corrupt partisans.

But a fundamental check not anymore, if the Republican Party's conception of government is ultimately upheld.

A new bill proposed by Republicans, and supported solely by Republicans shows how intent the GOP is on using their gerrymandered legislative majorities to pass unconstitutional bills against political opponents, and in service to moneyed interests such as the Koch brothers and the Cline Resource and Development Group mining interests.

Under the new bill, Assembly Bill 161 (and Senate Bill 154), judicial oversight by a circuit judge is radically altered and its rulings no longer have the force of law, if Republicans object (within 10 days).

Then, an injunction is no longer operative (the injunction is stayed) and whatever unconstitutional laws the Republicans enact will remain the law of the land until and unless another state appellate court acts.

During that period of time, GOP lawlessness is the law of the land.

This GOP bill eviscerates judicial protection of citizens from corrupt partisans. (See also the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau memo of April 10, 2013.)

Notes John Nichols:

(T)he purpose of judicial oversight is to frustrate the ambitions of power-hungry legislators and executives. The whole point of the separation of powers outlined in the federal and state constitutions is to ensure that no branch of government can casually diminish the rights of citizens, or create imperial government.

So, can the Republicans do this?

The only quote I found on the constitutionality of the proposed bill is by former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske.

Geske said,"To statutorily undo a court order before another court has acted on it is clearly to me an infringement on a court's independence, I don't think it will withstand constitutional scrutiny." (Marley. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, April 10, 2013)

Assembly Bill 161 reads like the 2011 U.S. House spending bill declaring a House bill passed by the GOP has the force of law should the U.S. Senate fail to approve another spending bill within some three weeks of passage of the House bill.

That bill was widely ridiculed as unconstitutional, and the bill faded.

But the undeniable effect of the Wisconsin bill is: The Constitution is not in force, and judicial enforcement of the law no longer is operative because the Republicans have said so, and this matter will not fade so fast.

Consider: In the case of the Wisconsin Assembly Bill 161, Republicans say a judicial order has no force of law because the Republicans have crafted a bill explicitly stating such.

So what happens when a judge finds this law (a fast-tracked bill for now) unconstitutional, and Republicans object to the judicial order, saying their objection nullifies the judicial order under their unconstitutional law?

In that case, the matter becomes more than an obscure GOP power-grab, and becomes a full-blown Wisconsin constitutional crisis—the like of which I have never seen in this state.

Welcome back to Scott Walker's Wisconsin, still here and still power-mad and corrupt.

GOP: Stop Blacks from Voting Now

2013-04-29T09:09:00.002-05:00

Even as the GOP advances its PR campaign claiming a historic reaching out to minorities, its unAmerican project of stopping minorities from voting continues.

One might think this later project would tend to disconfirm the credibility of the former campaign, but not in American, pretend journalism.

African-Americans voted at a higher rate than whites in 2012 for the first time in American history, thanks to the work of civil rights groups knocking down or temporarily halting the GOP's anti-voting bills passed by the GOP (and only by the GOP) in party-line votes in states where the GOP controlled the legislature and executive.

Fearing this development of them voting, for years the GOP has fabricated phantom massive voter fraud, a lie seen as needed to justify restrictive voter IDs (other initiatives include restricting early voting, ending same-day registration; shortening poling hours, and other GOP schemes) to stop alleged voter impersonation at the polls.

No great need for this lie, politically.

The GOP could contend a massive number of space aliens are voting at the polls, argue we need restrictive anti-voter impersonation voter ID laws, and no GOP politicos would dissent, the corporate press would play along, and most people would not notice.

The American corporate media (with notable exceptions) went along with the GOP, denying that the GOP's anti-voting program is a verifiable fact, and presenting voter fraud as a problem needing a solution.

The legal justification used in the courts is the integrity of our elections.

Fortunately, we are served by the work of citizen groups, such as the Advancement Project’s Voter Protection Program, battling the GOP's war against voting. Reads the Advancement Project:

The voting booth is the one place where all are presumed equal, yet the reality is that the playing field is far from level. Citizens are still denied an equal opportunity to cast a ballot and have it counted, disproportionately voters of color. Advancement Project’s Voter Protection Program works to identify and eliminate systemic barriers to voting in the hopes of achieving a more just democracy – one in which all voices have an opportunity to be heard.

Many African-Americans were offended by the GOP's effort to stop them from voting the last several years, and with the first African-American president at the top of the ticket outvoted GOP whites.

In Wisconsin, as with the national GOP and with no exception, the GOP is determined not to see this happen again.

Scott Walker, James Sensenbrenner (a voting rights poser; c'mon, you're almost 70 years old, man, time to grow up and do the right thing), and the whole GOP bunch call stopping voting "common sense," with virtually no challenge from the press.

'GOP still battling blacks and browns in effort against voting,' reads no news headline.

Why is stopping people from voting common sense in a democracy, as the GOP claims?

It's not.

Krugman Prevails Again over Austerity

2013-04-25T09:36:00.002-05:00

Thomas Herndon devastates
GOP fantasy economics

Updated - 'The really guilty parties here are all the people who seized on a disputed research result, knowing nothing about the research'

"(L)ast week, a startling discovery (by Thomas Herndon, a Ph.D student at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst) obliterated one of the key premises upon which the whole austerity movement was based. ... The discovery of (a) simple math error eliminated one of the key 'facts' upon which the austerity movement was based," notes Henry Blodget.

Economists, notably Paul Krugman, have been tearing out their hair for years trying to reason with Republicans and too many Democratic policymakers.

But facts, like evidence, logic, science and other liberal constructions mean nothing to many Republican policy makers, aka the austerians, no matter how badly Americans families suffer.

Don't look for this new development to change policy radically and immediately; Repubs such as Paul Ryan and company are not easily swayed.

Here's Krugman on the austerity agenda:

You get the idea: The austerity agenda looks a lot like a simple expression of upper-class preferences, wrapped in a facade of academic rigor. What the top 1 percent wants becomes what economic science says we must do.

Does a continuing depression actually serve the interests of the wealthy? That’s doubtful, since a booming economy is generally good for almost everyone. What is true, however, is that the years since we turned to austerity have been dismal for workers but not at all bad for the wealthy, who have benefited from surging profits and stock prices even as long-term unemployment festers. The 1 percent may not actually want a weak economy, but they’re doing well enough to indulge their prejudices.

And this makes one wonder how much difference the intellectual collapse of the austerian position will actually make. To the extent that we have policy of the 1 percent, by the 1 percent, for the 1 percent, won’t we just see new justifications for the same old policies?

I hope not; I’d like to believe that ideas and evidence matter, at least a bit. Otherwise, what am I doing with my life? But I guess we’ll see just how much cynicism is justified.

As John Nichols notes: "Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman suggests that an essential underpinning of the 'the intellectual edifice of austerity economics' has been called into question. But, adds Krugman, 'the really guilty parties here are all the people who seized on a disputed research result, knowing nothing about the research, because it said what they wanted to hear.'"

See also UMass Econ in the News.

The GOP Is Crazy, Some Are Taking Notice

2013-04-22T19:35:00.001-05:00

The GOP and the Tea Party are nuts.

It ought not be that difficult to voice this truism.

A few steps in the right direction are noted by Eric Alterman at The Nation:

Scot Faulkner, personnel director for the Reagan/Bush campaign in 1980, and Jonathan Riehl, former speechwriter for the right-wing Luntz Global consulting firm, recently complained of the corrosive effects of a "Republican world view that was devoid of facts and critical thinking," combined with the creation of "a new self-perpetuating political echo chamber." This follows on the remarks by longtime Republican congressional staffer Mike Lofgren, who noted two years ago that "the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe." And respected scholars Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein announced last year that "The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition."

That's, ah, fine. Within four year, three rational columns by Republicans.

But what about rational commentary from one GOP member of Congress, from one state, say Rep. Tom Petri (R-Fond du Lac, Wisconsin)? He has nothing to lose.

How about Petri picking up the phone, calling the city desk at the Fond du Lac Reporter and saying, 'the GOP is going off the rails and American families are suffering because of it.'

Rep. Petri would find much support for stating the incredibly obvious.

As for Wisconsin's other five GOP/Tea Party members of Congress; well one at a time.

UW-Milwaukee Study: One in Eight Wisconsin Black Men Incarcerated Between Ages, 18-64

2013-04-22T16:24:00.000-05:00

The American Leviathan

Blacks, when you go to prison, your lives deserve to be a "living hell," said Tommy Thompson during his gubernatorial runs. Tommy used racially coded language that fit nicely into Wisconsin's conception of the most segregated urban area in America—Milwaukee. We got to stick it to those guys!We did. It worked well, and continues today.

Those blacks have no one to blame but themselves of course, the Republicans and Tea Partiers assure us.

Racism is pretended to be some long-gone ugliness even as the Republicans and Tea Parties directly appeal to racism every election.

Segregation, that's not racism.

Poverty, that's not racism.

The war on blacks' voting, that's not racism either.

And incarceration rates in the putative American society, the "leviathan unmatched in human history," pay no mind to race.

Wisconsin is Number One in black
incarceration rates.

Michael M. O'Hear has a piece up, Wisconsin #1 in Black Incarceration; How Did We Get Here?

Writes O'Hear:

A new report from the UWM Employment and Training Institute shows that Wisconsin leads the nation in incarcerating black males. Based on data from the 2010 U.S. census, Wisconsin incarcerates about one in every eight of its black men between the ages of 18 and 64. This includes individuals held in state and local correctional facilities. The Badger State’s black incarceration rate is, in fact, about one-third higher than that of the second-place state, Oklahoma, and nearly double the national average.

The UWM Employment and Training Institute (prepared by John Pawasarat and Lois M. Quinn) should be read in its entirety by the entire Wisconsin Republican legislative caucus.

I don't believe it will. The GOP are not big readers. They outsource that kind of thing.

From the study:

Among the most critical workforce issues facing Wisconsin are governmental policies and practices leading to mass incarceration of African Americans men and suspensions of driving privileges to low-income adults. [Note: See why the GOP wants only GOP-prescribed voter IDs as a constitutional qualification for voting in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin SC upholding the Voter ID law is likely too naked a corrupt power grab. We'll see.] The prison population in Wisconsin has more than tripled since 1990, fueled by increased government funding for drug enforcement (rather than treatment) and prison construction, three-strike rules, mandatory minimum sentence laws, truth-in-sentencing replacing judicial discretion in setting punishments, concentrated policing in minority communities, and state incarceration for minor probation and supervision violations. Particularly impacted were African American males, with the 2010 U.S. Census showing Wisconsin having the highest black male incarceration rate in the nation. In Milwaukee County over half of African American men in their 30s have served time in state prison.

For Wisconsin Gov in 2014, We Need Gwen Moore or Russ Feingold

2013-04-21T09:08:00.002-05:00

Talk around the camp fire is about whom Wisconsin voters should put up against Scott Walker-Christopher Cline and the Koch Brothers, should Walker decide he has sufficiently decimated our state and escaped criminal charges.

Scott Walker running for president is not going to happen.

As for governor, some are suggesting Rep. Ron Kind (D-La Crosse, Wisconsin).

My two cents: Ron Kind just will not cut it for Wisconsin; for the same reasons that you don't widen an ice fishing hole, jump in and go for a swim. You just don't do it.

We need Gwen Moore or Russ Feingold. And we need one of them to declare fast.

Don't wait until after August.

Prosecutorial Discretion and Prosecutorial Protection

2013-04-20T08:37:00.002-05:00

NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna: American fascist

In Boston and Watertown, America has seen the best of law enforcement working with citizens and communities in a common effort.

Now comes word of the worst.

"The [Manhattan] District Attorney’s Office has concluded, after a thorough investigation, that we cannot prove these allegations criminally beyond a reasonable doubt," says Erin M. Duggan, chief spokeswoman for the Manhattan DA, Cy Vance.

Duggan refers to the savage attacks by New York City Police Inspector Tony Bologna who sought out and assaulted peaceful Occupy Wall Street protesters in 2011 with pepper spray in several premeditated acts of disgusting violence, captured on video, and plastered all over the Net in 2011. (John Del Signore, The Gothamist)

"Despite the overwhelming proof on videotape, seen around the world, (Manhattan District Attorney) Cy Vance Jr. has shown that it he will do nothing to disturb his cozy relationship with the police, even in the face of the clearest wrongdoing," attorney Ron Kuby said.

Consider also from late February (2013), the Milwaukee District Attorney's press release announcing the closing of the John Doe probe into Scott Walker's tenure as Milwaukee County executive in which Walker was not charged.

This February exoneration of sorts occurs—though Walker's e-mails on a secret, illegal e-mail system in his office were made public along with those of convicted felons' whom Walker hired and supervised—with the same explanation given about Inspector Tony Bologna.

The Milwaukee DA's press release reads in part: "I am satisfied that all charges that are supported by proof beyond a reasonable doubt have now been brought and concluded," per the Milwaukee DA John Chisholm's policy.

Proof beyond a reasonable doubt. That's what it takes to convict a defendant.

Now, this standard is increasingly presented by prosecutors to justify not launching prosecutions against protected figures like Anthony Bologna and Scott Walker, because these prosecutions might take a political toll on the prosecutors' offices.

This quantum of evidence of 'beyond a reasonable doubt' is not the standard used by prosecutors' offices to prosecute cases, though this position is getting more use of late as bigger-name, would-be defendants are getting away with corruption and in Bologna's case, physical assaults.

The process by a prosecutor's office in evaluating whether to bring a criminal charge is not a mini-trial with evidential presentations that prosecutors use as the basis to proceed only if the faux mini-trials conclude with a 'beyond a reasonable doubt' quasi verdict, which is the same as the standard to convict in a criminal trial.

There is no finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt reached; that's what a trial in a court of law does.

The reality is a miscarriage of justice that applies only for some, namely Walker and Bologna, and is pernicious to our society and the rule of law.

For most everyone else, prosecutors determine whether there is sufficient evidence and facts establishing probable cause that charges against a defendant should go forward and a probability of guilt exists before trial in jurisdictions in which alleged crimes are the "most flagrant, the public harm the greatest, and the proof the most certain," to again borrow from Jackson.

In our criminal justice system in which law enforcement officials routinely cook police reports and lie in open court (testilying), America has seen the criminal justice system create a "leviathan unmatched in human history," as Glenn C. Loury writes in Boston Review, [and his book, Race, Incarceration, and American Values. Glenn C. Loury. (MIT, 2008)].

This leviathan has not been constructed by prosecutors engaging in bringing only prosecutions they think are supported by evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.

Ours is a punitive system that now nakedly protects high-profile, would-be defendants in the reasonable expectation that most people will not be paying attention, and most corporate press will work as stenographers.

Does any legal observer or defendant for that matter—surveying the mounting civil citations in municipalities as protests are deemed illegal, money is extracted from citizens, and the sheer number of criminal defendants incarcerated—believe the DA's offices (including Manhattan's and Milwaukee County's) prosecute only cases that prior to criminal trial and plea bargaining have been determined to have already met the legal standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt?

Not a chance.

Surely, all of the innocent Americans persecuted by their local DA's offices would agree, and are critical of the corporate press that actually cheers innocent Americans being prosecuted.

Take an example, Stephen Biskupic, former U.S. Atty for the Eastern District of Wisconsin (2001-08).

After prosecuting proven-innocent voters, one Georgia Thompson and a Navy Vietnam-era veteran, Keith Roberts, Biskupic largely received a pass from the press and after 2008 worked for Scott Walker's campaign, before jumping ship early this year from the GOP's ethically challenged law firm where Biskupic was a partner.

Consider GOP mouthpiece Mike Nichols of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (May 11, 2007) who says though the evidence behind the prosecution of Georgia Thompson was a "bust," [Thompson's ludicrous conviction was actually tossed after oral arguments in April 2007, an occurrence that almost never happens] we should "admire" Biskupic.

That's giving an out-of-control US attorney a pass, certainly; one reads Nichols' piece and word "admire" rings out today.

Nichols is still writing for the Journal-Sentinel, despite issuing no apology or retraction for cheering on an innocent women being convicted of a federal crime by a corrupt U.S. attorney.

In Wisconsin, even as Scott Walker seems to believe he is above the law after DA Chisholm's refusal to prosecute Walker for misuse of public office, Walker has used the justice system and maintained his personal palace guard to issue civil citations to citizens expressing anti-Walker political thought at what has long been known as the People's House—our state capitol.

Wall Street bankers, Scott Walker, and Tony Bologna may think they are above the law as those prosecutors charged with building criminal cases and protecting the public decide the costs are too high to prosecute—too high for their careers—but refraining from protecting the public from the most egregious of baleful and illegal acts of powerful factions in our society is a betrayal.

As the great jurist, Robert Jackson said in 1940 while serving as U.S. attorney general:

The qualities of a good prosecutor are as elusive and as impossible to define as those which mark a gentleman. And those who need to be told would not understand it anyway. A sensitiveness to fair play and sportsmanship is perhaps the best protection against the abuse of power, and the citizen’s safety lies in the prosecutor who tempers zeal with human kindness, who seeks truth and not victims, who serves the law and not factional purposes, and who approaches his task with humility.

Citizens the nation-over need to ask: Does fair play, human kindness and truth, sound like our U.S. Attorney and local DA?

If not, then speak up.

If so, an occasional thank-you is in order.

Now, too many prosecutors are protecting powerful, unindicted criminals using the imprimatur of prosecutorial discretion as they look to the future with their eyes posted firmly on their careers.

Justice Jackson addressed this action as well: "Any prosecutor who risks his day-to-day professional name for fair dealing to build up statistics of success has a perverted sense of practical values, as well as defects of character."

The statistics Jackson referred to are how well the actions of the office serve the powerful.

As for character, that seems to belong to another time.

President Obama: "We've Seen the Character of Our Country Once More"

2013-04-20T07:16:00.001-05:00

From the White House

Massive Propaganda Campaign to Privatize Wisconsin Public Schools, Exposed by One Wisconsin Now

2013-04-19T14:58:00.002-05:00

Have some money; have some more. We're here to save
schools and just help. It's who we are. As Scott Walker says:
"I care too much about the people of this state
not to empower them to control their own destiny."

The Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation is among the "largest funder of the rightwing propaganda machine in the country," notes One Wisconsin Now.

But the Bradley Foundation's targeting of our state may have been understated.

A new report released by One Wisconsin Now (OWN) reveals the orchestration of the "funding of a massive campaign to advocate for the privatization of schools in Wisconsin."

This report comes right as Scott Walker and an extremist group of Republicans in the state legislature—elected to office through gerrymandered districts in 2012—push through Walker's 2013-15 budget.

In one finding, OWN reports Bradley has spent some $31 million since 2001 promoting education privatization and supporting various talking heads emitting rightwing propaganda.

One democrat, State Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee), is looking to grab some of that rightwing money for herself. [Taylor is a Democrat for 'school reform', and belongs to a front group, which the Washington Post notes is financed 'largely by hedge fund managers' on Wall Street].

The consequences for Wisconsin's public school system, already being systemically starved by the Republican Party, are grave.

And this diverting of money from schools to privatization schemes is estimated to cost Wisconsin taxpayers a whopping $1.8 billion in 2014-15, OWN reports.

The Bradley Foundation will do Walker's propaganda, with a lot of help from their friends.

As a whole host of rightwing-GOP outlets such as the MacIver Institute, the Wisconsin Reporter, and the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (all of whom pretend their organizations are legit) make excuses or simply invent facts as Walker is forced to face the jobs disaster that is happening before our very eyes, the GOP's MacIver Institute will ask Wisconsin citizens to avert their gaze as Walker pretends to be preparing for his run at the 2016 GOP nomination for the presidency.

No comment though from the usual GOP suspects.

"Michael Grebe, president and chief executive officer of the Bradley Foundation, declined to comment on the One Wisconsin report, which notes repeatedly that he is Walker's campaign chairman," notes Dan Bice today.

ALEC, Koch Brothers, the MacIver Institute (arguably the most destructive of GOP front groups), the Wisconsin Reporter, and the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute—not our parents' Republican Party.

Oklahoma GOP Majority Leader Says Customers "Jew Down the Price" of Products

2013-04-19T10:01:00.001-05:00

Rep Dennis Johnson (R-Oklahoma City)
Just Another Republican Bigot

Oklahoma Rep Dennis Johnson (R-Oklahoma City) is just another Republican—bigoted and repulsive.

Jonathan Turley has the story:

Oklahoma State and Republican Majority Leader Dennis Johnson took to the floor this week to share his experience as a small business man and discussed how some people will try to 'Jew down the price' of goods. In the background, legislators are seen laughing but there are clearly some who object because Johnson then adds 'I apologize to the Jews. Their (sic) good small businessmen as well.'

Johnson's biographical information is absent from his website.

Wonder if Johnson's bio info has been scrubbed.

Check out the other Oklahoma House members and their websites are full of biographical info, as most any elected official has on their webpages.

Turley notes in Johnson's campaign "Johnson proclaims that 'as a successful husband, father, businessman, civic leader and church leader, Dennis (Johnson) has brought and will continue to bring integrity and common sense to the House of Representatives.'

Wonder what church that is.

His religion is listed as "Baptist" by the religious group, Kentucky Council of Churches.

Johnson "serves as the Music Director at Unity Missionary Baptist Church in Duncan (OK) [Facebook] and as a member of the local gospel singing group, Unity," according to the Vote OK's bio of Johnson.

Johnson endorsed Rick Santorum in the 2012 race for GOP nominee for the presidency.

Scott Walker’s Jobs Fraud

2013-04-18T13:31:00.000-05:00

Scott Walker's Wisconsin—A Curse upon Our House

By Mike Konopacki (used with permission)

Actually, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s agenda is an unqualified success. Everything Walker has done over the last two years was designed to keep wages low and ensure employers a weak and desperate labor force. It’s simple supply and demand, high unemployment ensures low wages.

The March 2013 BLS statistics rate Wisconsin 44th in the nation in job creation. Wages fell by 4.1% and unemployment rose to 8.4%. Critics blame Scott Walker’s austerity policies. Walker blames the “uncertainty” of peaceful protests and recall elections.

The reality is that Walker’s agenda is an unqualified success. Everything Walker has done over the last two years was designed to keep wages low and ensure employers a weak and desperate labor force.

Walker’s claim of “uncertainty” is a lie. Wisconsin companies continue to move jobs to “uncertain” countries in search of low wages. Thermo-Fisher closed its Hamilton Manufacturing plant in Two Rivers and shipped the jobs to Reynosa, Mexico, a city embroiled in a deadly drug war. The situation is so bad that the U.S. State Department has prohibited federal employees from personal travel on highways outside of Matamoros, Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo. Outsourcing to China continues even though Chinese workers have been striking in increased numbers against low wage, dangerous jobs. At Foxconn, workers committed suicide by jumping out of windows in the face of unbearable conditions. If drug war violence and increasing social unrest are no deterrent to Wisconsin companies, it’s fallacy to claim that peaceful protests and harmless elections have forced Wisconsin “job creators” to dive under their desks cringing in fear.

Scott Walker and his Tea Party cult have no interest in creating jobs or a prosperous economy. Their agenda is to keep Wisconsin a low-wage state and to maintain brutal income inequality. In Janesville members of Rock County 5.0, an economic development group, were caught on film celebrating the the GM plant closure because it would force down area wages. Eric Isbister, CEO of GenMet, a metal-fabricating manufacturer outside Milwaukee, fired 15 of 25 skilled new hires to avoid workers with union experience who expected to be paid more than $15 an hour. And while employers complained about a “skills gap” for welders, UW Milwaukee professor Marc Levine reported that Wisconsin has 2,000 unemployed welders for about 500 job openings and at a recent jobs fair for graduating welders only eight companies showed up.

Walker emulates a Republican economic model deployed by former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. The promise then as now was that union busting, deregulation and tax cuts for the rich would create prosperity. It did and it does: for the top 1%. But the rest of us get stagnant wages, outsourced jobs and massive layoffs. Worse, Bush’s tax giveaway to the wealthy in a $2 trillion plus stimulus package spurred the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s and a nationwide collapse in home values—the primary source of wealth for average working people.

Surprisingly, many working and middle class voters continue to support Republicans! Wisconsin is no exception. Despite Walker’s total failure to deliver on his promise of 250,000 jobs and a better life for the people of the state, he’s got a 50% approval rating according to a recent poll. Are Wisconsin workers so beaten down that his lure of a measly $83 tax rebate is all he needs to buy their vote? You can bet he’s counting on it. If he’s right, not only can we expect more of the same but an insourcing of the same kind of exploitation and misery the ruling class imposes on workers in China. Better put up safety nets around what’s left of our factories ASAP!

Note: The MacIver Institute, a right-wing think tank with connections to ALEC and the Koch Brothers, promoted Scott Walker’s jobs deception, claiming that he is "more than halfway" to his jobs goal. PolitifactWisconsin rates this claim Pants On Fire and argues that Walker’s policies have generated only 63,700 jobs—far short of Walker's campaign promise that propelled him into office in 2010.

Effort isn't over, says President Obama; GOP maneuver on anti-gun violence bill condemned

2013-04-18T08:21:00.000-05:00

President Obama tells the American people that we can still bring about meaningful changes that reduce gun violence. Speak out, says White House, as shocked Newtown families express disbelief at Republican filibuster.