Wednesday, September 30, 2015

The Real Miracle at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

By Chris Taylor

We all thought it was a miracle when the Badgers beat Kentucky in the Final Four. Legislators – both Republican and Democrat – couldn’t wait to honor the University of Wisconsin basketball team. But, the real miracles are happening in the labs at UW, at the Weisman Center, at Research Park, and across Wisconsin. The same Republicans who clamored to have their picture taken with Sam Dekker and Nigel Hayes are now advancing Assembly Bill 305, which would shut down biomedical research and destroy the miracles that will come in curing or treating devastating diseases.
 
Deadly, debilitating diseases don’t care if you’re liberal or conservative. The hyper-politicization of biomedical research threatens future life-saving medical advancements. We’ve all benefited, or will benefit at some point in our lives, from the advances reaped from this research. The polio vaccine is just one example of this. I for one want my loved ones to be able to access every possible option should they become ill and for scientists to rely on the best research avenues available.
 
Wisconsin has a long history of innovative research and is an internationally recognized leader in biomedical research. Since its inception, 11 UW faculty members have received the National Medal of Science Award, described as “the nation’s highest honor for achievement and leadership in science and technology.” Right here, James Thompson derived the first human embryonic stem cell line in 1998, and is credited with redefining biomedicine. The current climate in Wisconsin threatens to tarnish that reputation.
 
The University of Wisconsin attracts top researchers from all over the world, as well as undergraduate and graduate students who are drawn to the university because of its biomedical research. The UW is literally educating the next generation of scientists. We stand to lose some of the best current and future scientists in the world.
 
But this life-saving research isn’t just being done at the UW. It’s being done in private businesses across the state – bioscience accounts for over 100,000 private sector jobs and has an economic impact of $27 billion a year. It’s also being done at Madison College, which just received a $661,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for their stem cell technology and regenerative medicine program.
 
We need to treat our scientists as the heroes that they are rather than creating a climate that is not supportive of research. These individuals are entrusted with one of the most important objectives. Advances on treatment for end-stage breast cancer, cardiac disease, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, blindness, diabetes, asthma, and immune disorders, multiple sclerosis, and neurodegenerative diseases have all been made possible by biomedical research.
 
I’ve been a state representative for 4 years, and unlike some of my colleagues, it seems, I know when I need to listen to the experts. One such expert is Professor Alta Charo, a leading authority on bioethics who just happens to on the faculty at UW Law School and UW Medical School. Professor Charo had this to say in her recent article in the prominent New England Journal of Medicine: “We have a duty to “tak[e] advantage of avenues of hope for current and future patients…This attack represents a betrayal of the people whose lives could be saved by the research and a violation of that most fundamental duty of medicine and health policy, the duty of care.” And policy makers have the duty to advance policies that give hope to improving people’s lives, not bills like AB 305 that shut down lifesaving research that will save a sick child’s life.

Scott Walker: Behind the Scenes

















By Jeff Simpson

Fond on Facebook, a video of the Mark Hogan interview with Scott Walker. 

Scott Walker:  Mr. Hogan, what will you do when one of my main donors....I mean job creators, comes to you and asking for a loan?

Mark Hogan:

























http://38.media.tumblr.com/89e32ba581ae99a5b0de7a48a3256805/tumblr_nrjsv364B11ssw1h1o1_500.gif  


Scott Walker: Excellent answer!! You are hired! 

Two Questions For Rick Esenberg

By Jeff Simpson 

The Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) recently became the last district in Wisconsin to switch from a union contract to an employee handbook.

The Madison School Board approved an employee handbook Monday that will replace the current union contract when it expires next summer.
The handbook became necessary due to Act 10, the 2011 state law that eliminated most collective bargaining for most public employees.
Madison took a while to get to this point. The Wisconsin Association of School Boards said it knows of no district other than Madison where workers still are covered by a pre-Act 10 union contract.
When the contract expires June 30, 2016, the handbook’s policies and procedures will guide interactions between the district and its roughly 6,000 employees.
While some school boards used Act 10 to dictate major changes in working conditions, cutting costs in the process, Madison took a different approach. The board instructed administrators to work collaboratively with employee representatives on the handbook’s language.

One of the biggest problems in Wisconsin today, is we weigh experts opinions/ observations equally with non experts opinions. We brought you this recently on the anti cure debilitating disease bills, when reporters would weight a doctorate degreed Professors opinion with Julainne Applings.  

We see that again here, when the reporter went to non education expert Rick Esenberg from Milwaukee to get his opinion on the Madison School Districts workings:

While the board was free to take this approach, it didn’t necessarily serve taxpayers well, said conservative lawyer Rick Esenberg.
“Basically, you can have a more effective school district if you don’t have rigid work rules,” said Esenberg, president of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty.

I have two questions for Mr. Esenberg that I doubt were ever asked or that he would be able to answer:

1.  What items specifically in the MMSD new handbook does not serve the taxpayers of Madison?  

2. Can you give us some examples of "rigid work rules" that stand in the way of a school district being effective?  

It is hard to have a public debate when there are so many column inches being devoted to pure unadulterated ignorance.  

The only way that I see hand books hurting taxpayers, is the fact that you have to have School District Professionals put hundreds of hours into drawing them up, that time could have been used much more effectively elsewhere had ACT 10 not taken away so much local control.

 

"When evil men plot, good men must plan." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 
 
“In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as “right-to-work”. It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights. …Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining by which unions have improved wages and working conditions of everyone. Wherever these laws have passed, wages are lower, job opportunities are few and there are no civil rights” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Wisconsin DNR Gets Punk'd

A bogus letter, made to look like it came from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, has been making the rounds. The letter tells citizens to hide their concrete deer lawn ornaments so as not to confuse surveyors doing an aerial count of the deer herds:



Most people would probably get a chuckle out of it and move on.

But not in Wisconsin.

Scott Walker's administration is so screwed up and incompetent that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel felt compelled to make sure that it was indeed a joke:
You can keep your ornamental deer in the yard.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says someone is using an official-looking letterhead advising the public to remove concrete deer from their property by Nov. 1.

Otherwise, the reader is told, the DNR might count them as part of a deer census.

The DNR's deer population estimates have been controversial for years, although the agency continues to count deer, including with aerial surveys.

"Obviously, it's a hoax," said Jim Dick, spokesman for the DNR. "We're not asking people to remove their concrete deer ornaments."

The purported memo is dated Aug. 3, but the DNR became aware of it on Monday as it spread over social media, including Facebook and Twitter.
Obviously, the letter isn't the only joke in Wisconsin.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Waukesha Reaps What It Sows

By Jeff Simpson 

Waukesha is known for three things, men raping couches, really bad water and voting solidly red.

The land that has given us the likes of Paul Ryan, Ron Johnson, Paul Farrow and sent Wild Bill Kramer(who would still be in office if he was not in prison) to Madison, over and over and over, are now starting to face the consequences of their actions.

The free market, anti Government haven is now begging for the Government to step in and let them ruin Lake Michigan the way they have mismanaged their own water.   Getting bailed out by the State of WI and harming Lake Michigan, sure beats those nasty regulations, and having to responsibly govern.

Now Waukesha is taking another hit, this one courtesy of their favorite son Paul Ryan.

Blaming Congress for its failure to reauthorize the U.S. Export-Import Bank, an institution that finances sales of U.S. industrial equipment to overseas customers, General Electric Co. says it will stop manufacturing engines in Waukesha and move that work to Canada.
About 350 jobs will be lost at the Waukesha plant, where GE Power & Water, a division of Fairfield, Conn.-based GE, builds engines used in the petroleum industry.
The company says it will move the production to a new $265 million engine factory to be built in Canada during the next 20 months.
The Waukesha workers amount to collateral damage in what has become a highly politicized fight.
GE and other companies have pleaded with Congress to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, which provides loans, credit guarantees and insurance to aid sales by U.S. companies to customers abroad. But many Republicans say the bank amounts to corporate welfare, benefiting large corporations that don't need government assistance.
The bank's charter expired June 30 when Republican members of the House blocked a reauthorization vote.

Yes the Republican leaders in the House(IE Paul Ryan) blocked a reauthorization vote.  Insteado f having the vote and seeing where the rest of Congress fell along this issue(you know democracy), they actually blocked a vote of reauthorization(not democracy).

GE then took their ball and went to Canada, costing WI and Waukesha 350 family sustaining jobs and a solid piece of tax base.   All gone in an instant.   For the economically challenged Republicans in WI(of which there are many) there is so much more:

GE says the Waukesha plant has more than 400 U.S. suppliers and, in Wisconsin alone, suppliers receive millions of dollars in revenue from the plant.
"We know these announcements will have regrettable impact not only on our employees but on the hundreds of U.S. suppliers we work with that cannot move their facilities, but we cannot walk away from our customers," Rice said.
Let's check the scorecard, 350 jobs lost (minimum), millions of dollars to surrounding businesses and huge tax base for the county.  Gone.

$174,000/yr + Cadillac Benefits and sweet pensioned Paul Ryan (R-Wall St.), remains unbowed by the devastation he is helping create in his home district:

Opponents of the Ex-Im Bank include some of the nation's highest-profile lawmakers, among them U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republican from Janesville.
Ryan has said he opposes the bank in principle, calling it a "strange collusion of big business and big government."
"Congressman Ryan remains opposed to the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank. He feels there are better ways Congress can promote economic growth. Rather than continue with corporate welfare, we should be focused on fixing our tax code and reducing burdensome regulations, which are long-term solutions to our economic woes," Ryan's office said in a statement.

Probably the worst part of this, the US Senate actually passed a bill reauthorizing the bank,  But the House felt it more important to go on vacation.
At the end of July, the U.S. Senate passed legislation reauthorizing the bank, as part of a long-term transportation bill. However, the House adjourned for the August recess without reauthorizing the bank and hasn't taken action on the issue since.


Paul Ryan is excited, now that so many of his good friends in Waukesha will no longer be working, they have more time to join him and his wife at the beach.

You can even grab your Paul Ryan political robot beach towel to sit with him:



In case you are wondering, the failed presidential candidate and former "open for business" guy, Scott Walker also opposed the reauthorization of the bank:

This time around, Republican opponents of the bank have a lot more friends — as in, nearly every GOP 2016 presidential candidate.

These new opponents join with what The Washington Post's Matea Gold and Tom Hamburger describe as a fierce lobbying campaign by tea party-aligned groups such as Heritage Action and the Club for Growth and mega-GOP donors Charles and David Koch to get rid of the bank.

This camp includes three of the four senators running for president, as well as most governors in the race: Bush, Wisconsin's Scott Walker, Louisiana's Bobby Jindal and former Texas governor Rick Perry.
Why would they oppose it?  Their boss told them to:

Even more surprising than the rare event of a government program being wound down was the force behind the shutdown: the billionaire Koch brothers. Their network of groups turned what was once routine reauthorization of a lesser-known financing entity into a litmus test for conservatives — and they scored a major victory.
The ability to make the bank a Capitol Hill priority and even a presidential campaign issue highlights the growing power of the Koch network within the GOP. It also spotlights some of the internal divisions complicating the Republican effort to recapture the White House in 2016.

While I feel bad that these 350 fellow Wisconsinites will no longer be employed at a company they have worked for generations, I highly recommend that the good folks in Waukesha do what they do best!

NO, get away from that sofa!

I was referring to, grab a Waukesha Freeman, run a bath and think of ways that you can blame Obama and see how you can bring other Wisconsinites down with you!

PS:  Don't forget to pull the Paul Ryan Shower curtain or you will have a bigger water mess than you do now!


Romney Ryan Shower Curtain

Abele Takes Credit For Pay Raise He Twice Rejected

Word came out about how Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele's proposed 2016 budget would affect county workers.

As expected, workers are taking yet another hit with reduced benefits and higher pension contributions.

But the real kicker is when Abele proudly announced that his proposed budget will include a 2.5% increase in wages for county workers over his 2015 budget.

However, a majority of that raise Abele is "giving" to workers is the 1.5% COLA raise that AFSCME had won for the workers earlier this year.  This is the same increase that Abele had vetoed and then refused to give when his veto was overridden by the Milwaukee County Board.  Abele only allowed the increase to go through when Corp Counsel told him that he had to do it.

It should also be pointed out that that 1.5% increase is really part of this year's budget, even though Abele doesn't want to admit to it.


Abele Plays Budget Games. Again.

It is common knowledge that Chris Abele finds it difficult to do his job, much less do it well.  This is especially true when it comes to the county budget.  Almost every year, Abele presents his budget a week late and in desperate need of repairs, not only for his misplaced priorities but for the simple math errors that a professional would have caught.

Unfortunately, this year proved to be no different.  Well, actually, even worse than normal for Abele.

Once again, Abele claimed he would not have his budget ready in a timely fashion.  Maybe he was too busy giving away county assets to his fellow plutocrats.  Maybe he was too busy plotting his takeover of the Milwaukee Public Schools.  Maybe he was too busy setting up his gubernatorial campaign.

One thing he wasn't busy doing was bargaining in good faith with the transit drivers union.

But there's more.  There's always more.

It appears that the boy prince is morphing more and more into his mentor, Scott Walker, by adding all sorts of unethical stunts to the budget process, as outlined by this open letter by Milwaukee County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb:



So not only is Abele again presenting the budget a week late and several million dollars short, he is actually presenting it first - before the public gets to see it - in a private, invitation only affair, which just happens to be in the same building that houses his privately owned companies. And on top of that, he is going to have campaign staff there?!

 Methinks Abele is trying to go for the world's record for the most ethical lapses at once!

Lipscomb is correct that it does show just how much disdain Abele has for the citizens of Milwaukee County.

Monday, September 28, 2015

Will WILL Stop Filing Frivolous Lawsuits Now?

By Jeff Simpson

A few months ago, righty blogger Dave Blaska, was enlisted as the patsy, by Wisconsin Law and Liberty and Scott Walker's campaign chairman Michael Grebe(whose son was the crony appointed to the UW-Madison Board of Regents).  

They filed a frivolous lawsuit against the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) for negotiating a one year contract extension with their teachers while ACT 10 was stayed.  In an era where our Governor's only strength is dividing the state, having labor peace is a successfully negotiated contract does not sit very well with Scott.

So failed Presidential candidate Scott Walker did what he does best, sicced his minions on them.   NOT that our friends on the right ever coordinate, but everyone on the far right, showed the same giddiness at the exact same time, thinking that the Shark would really punish the MMSD for giving teachers a 0.75% wage increase after having salaries frozen for years(for those scoring at home, Esenberg as head of his "nonprofit" makes $210,000/yr and is suing teachers for negotiating an approx $382 raise).    

The Madison School Board and Metropolitan School District (“MMSD”) are forcing their teachers to abide by – and taxpayers to pay for – an illegal labor contract with terms violating Act 10 based upon unlawful collective bargaining with Madison Teachers, Inc. (“MTI”).  Today, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (“WILL”), on behalf of David Blaska, a Madison taxpayer, filed a lawsuit in Dane County Circuit Court against the Madison School Board, MMSD, and MTI requesting a declaration that the contract is unlawful and a permanent injunction on its usage.
“The Madison School Board can choose not to utilize the Act 10 tools that would better serve their children and taxpayers, but they cannot enter into a contract containing terms prohibited by Act 10,” said Rick Esenberg, President and General Counsel of WILL.  “In every case in which Act 10 has been challenged, the courts have held that it is constitutional.  Labor contracts, such as the one between the School Board and MTI, that violate state law are invalid and unenforceable.”  

All fine and good, and it is nice to know that the Shark is at Scott Walker's beck and call.  It is however unfortunate that the children of MMSD must suffer, by having to defend this frivolous lawsuit, because Scotty Walker threw a temper tantrum.  

Luckily for all involved, the Honorable Judge Richard Niess just threw this silly lawsuit out.

  A Dane County judge dismissed a lawsuit Monday by a conservative blogger that sought to void teacher contracts in the Madison School District.Judge Richard Niess rejected the lawsuit on procedural grounds, saying blogger David Blaska did not follow the required legal steps.
Specifically, the judge said Blaska, a taxpayer in the district, failed to first serve the district with a notice of claim before filing the lawsuit, a requirement that would have given the district 120 days to respond.

Maybe now someone can serve Blaska, Esenberg, Grebe with papers asking for our taxpayer money back, we had to waste in defending this twaddle.  

How much more taxpayer money will WILL cost the fine people of WI before they stop filing frivolous lawsuits?





One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other

By Jeff Simpson 

We brought you the story this morning, that over the weekend, the Family Research council, led by Tony Perkins had a "ValuesVoters" summit to showcase the Republicans running for President.  The Canadian Cowboy, Ted Cruz, won the straw poll on the platform of arresting President Obama and assassinating world leaders he does not like.




To Compare/Contrast, our President spent the weekend speaking at the U.N. Summit where he spoke of his desire to end Poverty and Hunger.  


President Barack Obama on Sunday committed the U.S. to a new blueprint to eliminate poverty and hunger around the world, telling a global summit that a sweeping new development agenda is "not charity but instead is one of the smartest investments we can make in our own future."
It was the first of two addresses Obama is making at the United Nations. His second on Monday morning, to the annual U.N. General Assembly of world leaders, will be a broader examination of world issues, especially the ever-more complicated conflict in Syria.
Obama offered a powerful defense of a 15-year development agenda and will require trillions of dollars of effort from countries, companies and civil society.
He told delegates that 800 million men, women and children scrape by on less than $1.25 a day and that billions of people are at risk of dying from preventable diseases. He called it a "moral outrage" that many children are just one mosquito bite away from death.
Obama said the goals are ambitious but can be achieved if governments work together.




Still think the two parties are the same?  



Republican Values On Display



By Jeff Simpson

Don Trump is the crazy one they say.  Both sides are just as bad they say.  There is no difference if you elect a Democrat or a Republican they say.....

Then Ted Cruz spoke at the Republican "ValueVoters" Summit.


Ted Cruz after this speech, won the straw poll at this poorly named event.  As we see, while Cruz preaches the Constitution, he specifically tells us how he will break it(starting around the 6:30 mark):

Ted Cruz has screamed about Obama being a tyrant and a dictator who was “lawless” and didn’t obey the Constitution, but these things Ted said were blatantly unconstitutional, probably illegal, and definitely ‘tyrannical’.

If anyone thinks that the country could survive a Presidential term of any of the crazies running for President on the Republican side, then heaven help us.   The Canadian Cowboy is example #1 that American exceptional-ism no longer exists.  

Take the ten minutes to vote in EVERY election.  Please our kids are counting on it!  



The "Compassionate" Free Market

Christian Schneider, calumnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other corporate media propaganda sites, is struggling with what to do with himself ever since Scott Walker drove himself out of the presidential race even faster than most people had guessed.  Apparently, Schneider, has decided to take up shark jumping to fill his time.

In Sunday's paper, Schneider has his regular submission of bovine excretement in which he laments the phrase "compassionate conservatism." Schneider's faux outrage stems from the fact that Ohio Governor John Kasich accepted federal funding to expand Obamacare.

The horror! Making sure tens of thousands of vulnerable people get affordable health care coverage! How absolutely cold-blooded!

Ah, but Schneider was just warming up. He went on to actually try to argue that the free market system - aka plantation economics - is actually compassionate. No, really!
Actual conservatives already understand that their ideology is intrinsically compassionate.

It is compassionate, for instance, to allow parents to choose where and how their children are being educated, rather than sentencing them to failing government schools.
So, according to Schneider, instead of allowing kids to get a good education from the best teachers, it's more compassionate to send our children to private schools that close nine days into the school year, leaving families scrambling to get their kids into underfunded public schools.

Apparently, Republicans feel so much compassion for our children that they would go along with Chris Abele's scheme to privatize all the schools, regardless of the fact that the parents don't want it. What was that about free markets and choice?

Schneider continues along his flight of fancy with this:
It is compassionate to allow taxpayers to keep more of their own money to run their families as they see fit.
Hmm, my taxes went up by nearly 150% of what they were before Walker took over and installed his plantation economic agenda. And that's not even mentioning the tens of thousands of dollars that was cut from my take home pay. And let's not forget that the same economic agenda that Schneider is praising led Wisconsin to have the biggest drop in middle class families. Aren't you feeling all warm and tingly from all that compassion?
Then there's this:
It is compassionate to allow small businesses to be free of regulation and taxation so they can hire more employees and pay them better wages.
Ooh, we're already repeating ourselves here, but Wisconsinites, under the plantation economics agenda Schneider is pushing, is not better, hence that shrinking middle class. But hey, surely it's compassionate to allow companies like Menards to just dump hazardous wastes into our drinking water, right? Giving people cancer and other health problems is compassionate, right?

What says "I care about you" more than a wealthy CEO exploiting his workers by cutting their pay and benefits and making their worksites less safe?

Then Schneider gets to the best one yet:
And compassion isn't just economic. It is charitable to allow individuals to carry weapons to protect themselves if they feel they are in danger from an uncompassionate convict.
And if there aren't any uncompassionate convicts around, one could just shoot two year olds or revictimize victims that one is compassionately trying to help.

And to point out that homes with guns are actually less safe, well, that's just plain unfeeling and hard-hearted.

One shouldn't blame Schneider for being overly zealous in promoting the plantation economic agenda of his dark money overlords. I'm sure that Schneider, like his fallen hero Walker, simply cares too much.

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Scott Didn't Do It


Image result for scott walker not guilty

By Jeff Simpson 

In his failed run for President, or even for his whole career, it is hard to find a story that does not talk about how Scott Walker is a political control freak.  Walker is well known for having very few trusted advisers and running his campaigns basically by himself.

                         Mr. Walker’s hands-on approach to his political operation in                                      Wisconsin bordered on the obsessive, judging from a trove of                                    emails from his time as Milwaukee county executive, and as a                                    candidate for governor, that was released as part of a lawsuit.
He recommended a news leak for a fall weekend in which the Green Bay Packers were idle, to maximize news media coverage. He sent a Saturday morning order to three aides to “divide reactive and proactive communications” operations in his press office. And he advised a talk-radio host to file a public records request to his office for the sole purpose of unearthing the excessive number of public records requests being filed at the time by his opponents.

Mr. Walker’s strategic talents can be an asset. His ability to formulate and convey an effective message helped him win three hard-fought elections for governor in four years, including a 2012 recall election, in an extraordinarily competitive state. And he is doing much the same now: It was Mr. Walker who came up with the best-of-both-worlds formulation he has recently woven into his stump speech — that his hard-charging Senate opponents are “fighters,” and his rival governors who have won difficult elections are “winners,” but he is the rare breed who has done both.

Asked about Mr. Walker’s hands-on approach, a Republican close to him who requested anonymity to discuss the candidate’s political style said: “It’s clear that he’s engaged. He knows what he wants, knows what he believes in and is not being told what to say.”
Actually I found a place where Scott Walker has no control over his campaign, when he gets in trouble or does something stupid.


 The Green Bay Packers contacted Gov. Scott Walkers's presidential campaign, noting one of its fundraising campaign letters violated team policy on use of the team's name in promotional materials, FOX 11 has learned.In a Sept. 10 email, the campaign offered two 50-yard line tickets and transportation to the game in exchange for a donation.
It reads, in part:
"On Monday, September 28 Wisconsin's own Green Bay Packers will be playing the Chiefs at historic Lambeau Field and I want you to be there with me.There is no better place to catch the excitement of a professional football game and no more electric crowd than what you'll encounter at Lambeau Field. Our campaign is going to provide round trip transportation for you and a friend to Wisconsin for the game and give you two tickets on the 50 yard line.Go ahead and chip in $4 or more for you and a friend to be automatically entered for the tickets.I look forward to meeting you at Lambeau, Friend.Scott Walker"

The person who pretty much any embedded political reporter in the country has written almost obsessively micromanages his campaign, uses the Green Bay Packers to fund raise against the Packer's own policies and definitely without permission(think this is not a big deal? ask Dominicks grocery) .  

Did Scott Walker take responsibility for his mistake, own up to it, and apologize?

In a word NO

The team did not authorize this use, and called the campaign informing it of the policy, a team spokesman told FOX 11.
FOX 11's emails to the campaign have not been answered. At an event Friday, Gov. Walker said he "wasn't involved in that process."

How long can Scott Walker keep getting free passes for using the State of Wisconsin for his own personal ambitions and then thowing anything/anyone under the bus that is no longer needed.  




Trickle Down Economics Explained

In picture form even:


Friday, September 25, 2015

Jim Villa - VP of Scott Walker's Campaigns

By Jeff Simpson 

Scott Walker recently pointed out that even though he planned on cutting $300 Million(later trimmed to $250 million) from the University of Wisconsin system budget, they could easily make up the difference if each professor taught one more class.

Image result for Jim villa bad pictureWalker said UW campuses might be able to tap into their reserves to offset the cuts, but he emphasized “it will make them do things that they have not traditionally done.”
“They might be able to make savings just by asking faculty and staff to consider teaching one more class per semester,” Walker told reporters Wednesday in Madison. “Things like that could have a tremendous impact on making sure that we preserve an affordable education for all of our UW campuses, and at the same time we maintain a high-quality education.”
Even though that showed a complete lack of understanding what the UW System does(he did drop out of Marquette after all), logic, common sense and economic sense, Scott Walker was unbowed and went forward with his cuts.  

Some thing that only got a little bit of press at the time, and none during the time of cuts, is that Walker got his good friend Jim Villa hired to a VP position at UW Madison, making well over $200,000/yr of taxpayer money.   

Jim Villa, who was almost arrested, was tapped to be VP of Office of University Relations, despite the fact that everyone on the interview committee said specifically - DO NOT HIRE JIM VILLA!

Jim Villa, as most incompetent ass kissers are want to do, has kind of stayed under the radar and not so outwardly political.

Thanks to his bosses blind ambitions, that all was about to change. 

 It was a painful turn for Walker, who had quickly vaulted to the top of the Iowa polls, powered by a fiery January speech in Des Moines, only to drop precipitously in the summer amid Donald Trump’s rise. He had gone from front-runner to also-ran in a matter of months.So on Monday morning, the group of advisers — including veteran Walker hands John Hiller, Bill Eisner, Ed Goeas, and Jim Villa — huddled with Scott and Tonette Walker. The top of the agenda, according to campaign sources: polling and fundraising. And the numbers were bad.
 There it is in black and white. 

 Jim Villa, VP of University Relations(at taxpayer funded UW-Madison) dropped what he was doing(on a Monday morning) to head to the publicly funded Governors Mansion to discuss Scott Walker's plan for his next phase in the Presidential election.   

This brings up many questions:

Is that what WE pay him over $200,000/yr for? To help Scott Walker campaign?  Did Ray Cross know?  Will Scott Walker ever learn to stop campaigning on the taxpayer dime?  Does Jim Villa really represent the UW at this time or is he eyes and ear for Scott Walker in the liberal institution. What was discussed at this meeting that the public should know about?  How many other of these meetings has Jim Villa attended?  How many during the work day?  Is Jim Villa also a paid adviser on the campaign?   How would you feel if a Democratic administration member tapped into an Administrator or Professor at UW-Madison, to actually step up and help during business hours? Do you think taxpayer resources should be used to help Scott Walker keep his job? Will anyone even question him? 

Unfortunately, the guy ahead of University Relations, has not found the time to answer my questions I emailed him directly, but I do not expect an answer.  

However if you think that it is OK for the Governor is telling Doctorate Level Professors to "teach another class" to save money, but he can have his crony, the $200,000/yr Vice President, on call to help him where ever and whenever he needs help campaigning, then our priorities are shot.   

If you think this is wrong then voice your displeasure at how these people are spending/wasting our valuable tax dollars!  If you are an alumni, is this really who you want representing your great University?  
Your voice matters!   

Photo James  Villa

James Villa

Vice President for University Relations
Contact
1760 Van Hise Hall
1220 Linden Dr.
Madison, WI 53706
Telephone: (608) 262-4464
jvilla@uwsa.edu
@Jim_Villa 

Or else contact his Boss at UW Ray Cross(or both):
Ray Cross, President
1720 Van Hise Hall
1220 Linden Dr.
Madison, WI 53706
Call: (608) 262-2321
Email: president@uwsa.edu





Thursday, September 24, 2015

Walker Loses Hungry For Power Games

By Jeff Simpson

Because this is too good, not to share:


Mediatrackers Plays (Foot)Loose With the Facts

By Jeff Simpson


Mediatrackkkers and Brian Sikma is at it again.   Apparently modeling his hero the Rev. Shaw Moore, now dancing is something that the Bradley Foundation funded Media Trackers is attacking.

  Dance degrees are offered at six University of Wisconsin system campuses, including minors offered at UW-Green Bay, UW-Whitewater, and UW-Eau Claire. UW-Stevens Point offers a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and UW–Milwaukee and UW- Madison offer both Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in Dance.....
 Classes run the gamut from Javanese Performance Repertory to Body Sense I&II. According to the course listing, Body Sense, “provide[s] an environment for creative exploration of individual body awareness, integration of body-mind and experiencing the body in space.” Further study in this area would lead to, “intensified self-observation and documentation of experience. Stress on intrapersonal, interpersonal, emotional, and existential intelligences.”

Apparently dance is bad in the Michael Grebe, Eric O'Keefe, Brian Sikma, Collin Roth, Charley Sykes vision of Wisconsin.     We must all pay for the fact that none of them could get a movie date in the 80's to see Footloose.  If they had they would know that dancing plays a part in the Bible(they should try reading that book):





Where is Ren McCormick when you need him?  Do we really need to defend the ability of people who have a passion for dancing to further their career via our University System?  

I know that the folks at mediatrackkkers do not understand Capitalism, but there is money to be made in dancing! There are also plenty of jobs for these majors to go into from College.   

In case you were wondering(MT skips this) but the arts bring over $535 Million dollars and almost 23000 jobs to our great State of Wisconsin.  

These guys and their archaic ideas and massive lies, make me so mad I just need to relieve some stress