photo from defendwisconsin.blogspot.com
See "Ol' Dead Eyes" smiling down beneficently upon his people, reassuring them that despite all evidence to the contrary, he's been just dandy for the economy? We're seeing and hearing a lot of that tripe these days, as the Walker Petition Signature Gathering Phase of the recall winds down. You can't turn on the TV or radio without hearing some form of pro-Walker propaganda.
There's a neat little twist to this one, though. All will be revealed below the arabesque (unless you live in Janesville. In that case, you know the twist already).
See that factory behind the billboard? It's an abandoned factory: the Janesville Assembly Plant, where GM used to employ hundreds of people to build SUVs. It was opened in 1919, and at the time it was closed (2008-09), it was the oldest operating GM plant. Nice location to promote Walker's stellar record on jobs.
defendwisconsin has a nice story about this, including a video of the locale in case anyone was concerned that this was a photoshop fail, rather than the genuine article.
As defendwisconsin points out, Walker isn't responsible for shuttering this plant. However, one of our favorite members of the House of Representatives represents Janesville: Paul Ryan.
Here's what John Nichols has to say about Paul Ryan (from The Nation last January)
Janesville used to be a major manufacturing center. But it has fallen on hard times. Like so many manufacturing communities in the Great Lakes region, it has been rocked by the outsourcing of US jobs. That’s not Ryan’s concern, however. Since his election to the House in 1998, Ryan has consistently voted for free-trade pacts—including the extension of most-favored-nation trading status to China—that have been absolutely devastating to the community and others in his southeastern Wisconsin district.
Word on the street is that the billboard is on its way down. Read the fine post over at defendwisconsin, and there you'll find a phone number to call to thank Walker for his excellent record on providing good, well-paying, long-term jobs for the folks in Wisconsin. We're number one in the nation! In job losses, that is. This is from WSAU news radio website: not exactly The Nation.