My household was called twice last week by Republican pollsters. I had friends who were also called. It is strange that we subsequently didn't hear anything about the results of the poll. Not a peep. However, there has been an almost frenzied spew of rightwing legislation in the last few days, working through the dirty end of the sphincters of Wisconsin governance.
Here's my theory: They give a big poll. They don't like the results. 1% Walker reads the writing on the wall. They don't publish bad results from their own poll. Instead they double down on corporate-funded happy meals, like the horrible strip mining for Florida Friends bill, and their own Covert Redistricting Act that has, much to Republican chagrin, even hit the reluctant local airwaves.
Sham 1: The horrible mining bill that will strip out a huge chunk of the verdant Penokee Range in the very northern tip of Wisconsin has surprisingly made its way quickly through the Senate. It passed through the House ("Assembly") with no problem, since it was birthed by Jeff Fitzgrifter in that farcical furnace. After all kinds of public resistance, including adverse reactions to the obvious disrespect and potentially illegal exclusion of Bad River Ojibwe whose tribal lands are directly affected, it was assumed that the trip down the Senatorial intestines would be slowed for proper digestion.
Not so.
According to the The Progressive:
In a Wisconsin Radio Network interview last week Chairman Neal Kedzie said he was consulting with the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe in writing the Senate version of the bill. Bad River tribal officials confirmed today that they were not consulted in the writing of this draft bill. Indeed, none of the changes from the Assembly version of the bill reflect the environmental and procedural concerns raised by Bad River or the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission.
There is now a
"hearing" for the sham bill in Platteville, WI. It is scheduled for this Friday, at 10:00 a.m. Platteville is half way across the state, about as far from where the mine will actually be located as one could get. Anyone wishing to get to the hearing from Ashland would have to be on the road at 3:00 a.m. The new bill will get rid of those clumsy requirements for environmental impact statements and make getting future permits really easy for the Earth Extractors. We're open (pit) for business, don'cha know!
Sham 2: Even though they were caught in a massive lie, and even thought they were ordered by a panel of three federal judges to hand over documents, the GOP "signers of the secrecy pact" want to keep 84 documents pertaining to their gerrymandered redistricting process out of the public eye. They claim "attorney-client privilege."
According the the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal:
The Republicans tried repeatedly to withhold documents and prevent those who drew the maps from having to give depositions, but they largely relented last month, after a series of court rulings against them. In the last decision, the court said the Republicans' attorneys had filed frivolous motions and ordered them to pay about $17,500 in attorney fees to the Democrats.
Now, the Republicans are trying to withhold the 84 documents because they were between counsel for lawmakers and staff who drew the maps. The Democrats argue they must be released, in part because the lines between legal advice and political advice are easily blurred.
Even the Oshkosh Daily, by no means a liberal rag, slams the Republican closet campaign:
The revelation this week by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the Republican leadership in the legislature required lawmakers to sign secrecy agreements regarding the redistricting process runs contrary to the state's statutory commitment to open government. It also draws attention to the fact that the redistricting process took place in secret meetings between the Republican majority and their attorneys. Both are issues that need to be reformed...
The ability of the majority party to craft legislation in secret and compel members to sign secrecy agreements is an abuse of open government that must be fixed if state has any hope of recovering from the political rancor that exists today.
Then there's this: On Sept. 14, 2010, after winning the Republican nomination for governor, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker in a victory speech rattled off a list of on-the-job accomplishments. Among the items Walker listed:
"Our county now has the fastest growing airport in America, attracting nearly 1,000 new private sector jobs."
Well, Midwest Express just announced that they were shedding 500 jobs at our airport in Milwaukee, Mitchell International. My family almost always flies Midwest, even though they have never been the same after a hostile takeover a few years back. My family chose not to go anywhere these last holidays because of Walker's hit to our dual-household State salaries. Midwest Express cites "decreasing customer base" as their reason for firings.
Hmmm.
Here is a graph of Wisconsin jobs. I keep it on my laptop to view whenever I hear a Walker TV ad claiming he has balanced the budget, and "it is working, Wisconsin." Ask yourself, "Now, what happened in 2011, when the lines drastically redirect?"
But there is also this good news regarding the frivolous claims against validity of signatures in our four Senate recalls. This from the Janesville Gazette:
A cursory review of the signature challenges the four lawmakers submitted to the Government Accountability Board on Thursday shows that they haven't met the threshold to prevent the elections, said Zac Kramer, who heads the group tasked with electing Democrats to the state Senate.
We're all waiting for the headline, "Walker Aggressively Probed in John Doe Investigation."
The grifters are circling overhead. Things are dying on the desert floor, and it isn't merely clean governance.