If you want an example the depth of corruption that exists in Wisconsin under Scott Walker and the Republican Legislature, let me fill you in on a story that broke this week.
Jason Stein and Paul A. Smith had the story this Sunday in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel involving the "United Sportsmen of Wisconsin," and it involves State Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder giving away $500,000 in state funds to this group.
George Meyer, executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, [praised] the goal of the grant but question[ed] the criteria attached to it. The wording of the budget motion prevented Meyer's federation from applying for the award.
"We aren't criticizing the purpose of this at all," said Meyer. "We think its purpose is important. But clearly it looks like it was put together for one group."...
In an interview, Suder said the grant would help to avert a "looming crisis" for hunting and fishing and ensure the future of those pastimes in the state. He said he talked to United Sportsmen and other groups about the grant but wasn't aware that United Sportsmen would include his former chief of staff, Luke Hilgemann, in the application as one of its educators.
Hmmm, so what is Luke Hilgemann doing now?
Hilgemann recently left his job overseeing and lobbying for the Wisconsin chapter of [Koch front group] Americans for Prosperity to take a job in Washington as the No. 2 executive for the group favoring conservative economic policies.
Amazing how these things work out in GOPland, isn't it?
I also wondered where I had heard of United Sportsmen of Wisconsin before, punched up the Google, and it linked to this great interview with Internet journalist Greg Palast. I then remember that I mentioned this article a few weeks before the November elections last year, but this part of the interview is worth repeating.
The Koch Operation, Americans for Prosperity, had its Chief set up a front called United Sportsmen of Wisconsin. United Sportsmen of Wisconsin, which appeared and then instantly vanished after the recall vote, using the Themis machine, were able to identify likely Democratic absentee voters in key recall areas. Because there were also votes, by the way, on legislatures. The Themis machine was able to get the United Sportsmen of Wisconsin to identify Democratic voters, send them letters saying hereâs where you mail in your ballot, and hereâs the deadline. The address was a phony, it was their own, and the date was after the legal date for submitting an absentee ballot. So, either way, you were fucked like a duck. The Sportsmen basically were hunting Democrats.
By the way, PR Watch points out that other members of the United Sportsmen of Wisconsin include
NRA lobbyists, Tea Party members who organized pro-Walker rallies, and board members on the Wisconsin Coalition of Virtual School Families. Are these guys into hunter education, or another type of "[re-]education"? Hmmm?
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