Sunday, October 5, 2014

Haven't We Been Here Before?

By Jeff Simpson - Cross posted from Purple WI

Scott Walker is "very disappointed" that Mary Burke used some policy positions that were copied from other Democrats running throughout the nation.    Mr. Walker should be disappointed in his memory.   Scott Walker was sworn in on January 3rd, 2011 and on January 27, 2011 signed his first bill into law.  That Bill was Wisconsin Act 2 or better known on right wing talk radio as Tort Reform.
Wisconsin Act 2, was introduced by Rep. Jim Ott and Sen. Rich Zipperer at the request of Scott Walker.   Let's let our friends at PR Watch break down this bill a little further.
Such is the case with Wisconsin Act 2 which adopts parts of the ALEC "Punitive Damages Standards Act", limiting the ability to hold corporations accountable for outrageous acts of negligence or recklessness causing injury or death. It draws liberally from the ALEC "Product Liability Act", giving corporations free rein to manufacture defective products or products with insufficient warnings about hazards. A corporation can now escape liability in Wisconsin by showing that the product it manufactured complied with existing regulations, even if the corporation knew the product was dangerous, a standard drawn from the ALEC "Regulatory Compliance Congruity with Liability Act" and "Product Liability Act". Wisconsin Act 2 also draws from elements of the ALEC "Comparative Fault Act" and "Joint and Several Liability Act" in changing the standards for apportioning fault in a product liability lawsuit. The law also extends liability protections to the nursing home industry (which supported him in the election), using ALEC bills such as the "Non-Economic Damage Awards Act", limiting awards in cases involving long term health care providers to $750,000 (an increase from the ALEC $250,000 cap) or the amount awarded in economic damages. Act 2 also adopts the ALEC "Reliability in Expert Testimony Standards Act", adopting the Daubert standard, making it much harder for people to qualify as experts by adopting federal rules favored by corporations.
Nowhere, in the final Senate nor Assembly bill was ALEC footnoted or credited at all!  Senators Alberta Darling and Leah Vukmir have even called for Mary Burke to resign over this scandal, yet both vote for the final version of the uncredited ghost written Wisconsin ACT 2.   As of the time this was published, neither Senator has yet to ask for the resignation of either Mr. Ott or Mr. Zipperer(who has since resigned from the Senate but now works directly for Mr. Walker).
Even this very paper, who has endorsed Scott Walker twice, has told Mr. Walker - "hey Pot have you met Kettle?".
Honestly, Mr. Walker has not even been original in his advertising. Maybe these charges of plagiarism against Mr. Walker will stick
As I pointed out in my last column, we need to make sure our own house is in order before we start throwing stones.
It appears that Mr. Walker is not going to take my advice, and is doubling down on the attacks.  Even if his house comes crashing down around him.    Apparently,  because he has failed so miserably at creating jobs, and balancing the budget, along with the perpetual John Doe investigation, that attacking appears to be his only chance. 
Heavn Help the great people of Wi, as they will have to sit through the hundreds of millions of dollars of attack ads and BS between now and November.  Making the Brewers collapse that much more unbearable!
One last piece of follow up.  Whatever happened to Wisconsin Act 2, aka Tort Reform?   Well unfortunately it failed in its objective, as Professor Esenberg has shown us how easy it for someone to still file frivolous lawsuits!
However that story is for another day! 

1 comment:

  1. This plagiarism crap is very offensive to me. Since 1988 I have made my living writing for others. None of my work is ever attributed and I retain no rights to it. It is work product and I give it no more thought than an assembly line workers gives the widget she just helped to build.

    That anyone anywhere would at any time call one of my clients a plagiarist is incomprehensible to me but what makes this all the more confounding to me is that I used to work in politics. Among many other things I would write letters to the Des Moines Register for others to sign. It's part of how things are done and there is nothing wrong with it. Everyone who signed one of my letters did so because they agreed with what it said, but lacked the skills to write a good letter.

    In the private sector, I attracted far more Republican clients than Democrats including at various times actual candidates in the process of running for office. Democratic candidates have no trouble attracting good writers as staff and volunteers. If this plagiarism crap was applied across the board, by their own ridiculous nonstandards the Republicans would be the biggest offenders. This should be obvious to anyone who reads letters to the editor. The left writes better than the right, and to a significant degree.

    This is the emptiest kind of grandstanding and is the direct result of the GOP taking in the racist Southern Democrats who were famous for calling their opponents "thespians" because they assumed (correctly) that ignorant voters would confuse the word with lesbian.

    That the Journal-Sentinel is promoting this is indefensible. Not one professional journalist would sign off on this, and the reporters should be pressed at every opportunity for their personal views on the matter.

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