Political Heat

Scott Walker was doing this... I was thinking that picture looked familiar then remembered cuz it was from this too! Walker is slashing and burning everything he can get his hands on in the state with his budget while the Wis Dems are busy lobbing bombs at each other and having knock down drag out fights on Facebook over the conspiracy theory of the day surrounding any given DPW candidate. Look folks...at the end of the day one of these 5 people is gonna be leading our party and I sure hope we can get past our pettiness to support them. I think our friends over at Wi Soapbox said it the best: Yes, democracy, but you know what, this isn't government... It's a political party. What boggles my mind more than anything with the whole chair race is that people who do comparatively little for the party itself or understand the whole party apparatus are the ones who are most critical of it. All of us in the blogging world are guilty of this in some measure, but politi...

Scott Walker belittles the intelligence of women to make an important decision on their own Gov. Scott Walker says a law he signed that forces women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound against their will -- sometimes including using transvaginal ultrasounds -- is strictly to give women “more information” about what they’re doing. At a campaign stop (but not officially a campaign, guys, really) in New Hampshire, Walker was asked by a woman in the audience about the law. “I’m pro-life,” Walker said , “but if someone’s pro-choice don’t you want an informed choice?” The thing is, Wisconsin women were already receiving an informed choice about their options before the law was passed. Wisconsin law mandated (and still requires) that women seeking abortions receive counseling about their decision before undergoing the procedure. They then have 24 hours before coming back to the clinic. Then, and only then, can they have the abortion procedure performed. That’s a lot of in...

Loosening of standards the wrong way to help rural areas retain competent teachers A provision slipped into the budget bill last week could mean that children of Wisconsin might be taught by unlicensed teachers in classrooms across the state. In core classes (science, math, social studies, or English) a school could hire a non-licensed teacher if they have attained a bachelor’s degree. In all other classes, even that requirement wouldn’t be necessary, and high school drop-outs with “relevant experience” could be hired on . It’s a move that Republican Rep. Mary Czaja says will help rural schools to find and retain qualified teachers in those areas. But changing the qualifications to find qualified teachers isn’t the answer to staffing these schools . The executive director of the Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance agrees. When asked whether they wanted qualifications loosened for teachers to help in hiring, Director Jerry Fiene responded with disgust . “Heavens no,” said Jer...

Fundraising during budget consideration seen as huge conflict of interest UPDATE: Sen. Alberta Darling has now canceled the event. Read more at the Cap Times . Original Post: Every two years, lawmakers in Wisconsin put together the largest piece of legislation that will be seen for the remainder of that cycle: the state budget . With a myriad of funding proposals being considered for the budget, it’s imperative for lawmakers to at least appear neutral when it comes to special favors being placed in the bill. And so, it has been tradition in the state to tone down campaign fundraising while legislators consider the all-important budget. For State Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) and State Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette), that tradition must seem silly -- so they're ignoring it altogether . The two plan to hold a fundraiser Thursday to raise money for Darling’s campaign committee, Friends of Alberta Darling. The event costs $500 a person ($1,000 to reach the “H...

We need to fix what Walker's done to Wisconsin, with or without him. What has happened to our beloved Wisconsin? The state that I’ve called home for my entire life is slowly crumbling. At almost every problem you can observe, you can see Gov. Scott Walker’s fingerprints are there. Jobs are recovering from the recession at a slower rate than the rest of the Midwest region, and we’re not doing well nationally either. What jobs DO get created pale in comparison to what we had pre-recession, as income growth has been dismal since Walker took office as well . The jobs creation agency that the governor put in place of the Department of Commerce has been mired in controversy. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) has handed out millions of taxpayer dollars as loans, funds that have rarely been accounted for, and that may have been improperly granted to donors of Scott Walker’s campaigns over more deserving businesses. Our schools are getting their budgets cut, te...

Two American history gaffes in one week, plus per-pupil spending dipping below national average, are ominous signs of what’s to come Scott Walker isn’t a friend to U.S. history. In two separate tweets this week, Team Walker got significant events of our nation’s early beginnings very wrong. In the first, Walker’s Twitter account tried to celebrate the founding of Jamestown. There’s just one problem: Jamestown was founded 408 years ago, not 505. That’s a minor slip to be sure, although how it can be blamed on a typing error is questionable. It pales in comparison to another slip-up this week by Walker. Tweeting an image of a quote from Thomas Jefferson, Team Walker pushed for “smaller, more conservative government.” The problem here? The quote can’t be attributed to Thomas Jefferson . He never said it. Walker joins a long line of politicians who have slipped up on quoting the author of the Declaration of Independence. The problem is so frequent that the official s...

Feingold declares himself a candidate in rematch against Ron Johnson Former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold indicated this week that he will run to reclaim the seat he lost in 2010. “People tell me all the time that our politics in Washington are broken, and that multi-millionaires, billionaires and big corporations are calling all the shots,” Feingold says in an online video introducing himself as a candidate. Elected to serve three consecutive terms prior to his loss, Feingold was best known for putting forward a bipartisan bill (along with Republican Sen. John McCain) to curb campaign contributions from corporate interests. Much of that law, known as McCain-Feingold, was gutted by the U.S. Supreme Court in what many ( including current justices ) have called one of the biggest judicial mistakes made by the Court in recent years: the Citizens United ruling. The 5-4 decision paved the way for unlimited funding from corporations into U.S. elections. Shortly after the ruling in 2010...

Nearly two-in-five Walker supporters nationwide believe in wacky conspiracy theory, a higher rate than typical GOP voter Are Scott Walker supporters more paranoid than typical GOP voters? It seems to be that way.  A recent poll conducted by Public Policy Polling shows that 32 percent of Republican voters believe in the conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama is planning to use a military exercise to invade the state of Texas . For real.  Thankfully, a higher number of Republican voters (40 percent) consider that idea as nonsense (although 28 percent are unsure one way or another). In the same poll, Scott Walker is leading the rest of the Republican field of declared or potential candidates to run for president in 2016. He holds 18 percent of the Republican vote, with the next highest contender being U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) at 13 percent. Among Walker’s supporters, 38 percent believe the Texas-Invasion conspiracy theory, with 36 percent of his suppo...

Decision by Ozanne was proper, but feeling of disgust remains Madison is torn over the decision not to pursue charges against a police officer who killed a young man just a few short months ago. Tony Robinson, who was shot after an altercation with Officer Matt Kenny, was shot and killed after several 911 calls were made following erratic behavior on his part, apparently due to drugs that were in his system at the time. Kenny, who felt threatened and was attacked by Robinson, shot the teen seven times. There are good arguments about what should be done on both sides. Given the strict information of the case, Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne determined that no charges should be filed against the officer. I’m inclined to agree with that decision. But that doesn’t mean that changes shouldn’t be made, or that Tony Robinson deserved to die that night. I support what Ozanne has said, but that doesn’t mean I am any less frustrated with what has transpired. Aaron Cam...

The sudden introduction of a restrictive abortion bill may be due to presidential aspirations Republicans in the legislature and Gov. Scott Walker have indicated they plan to pass into law a bill that would ban all abortions in the state after the 20-week mark. It’s unclear what the importance of this bill would be. The number of abortions after 20 weeks in America is less than 12 out of every 1,000 performed . And they’re typically performed for reasons other than convenience, despite what some people might argue. Women aren’t using abortions after 20 weeks as a form of birth control -- with the procedure costing more than $10,000 in some cases, that’d be a ridiculously expensive method. Rather, the reason for this procedure is often due to health concerns , and results in a painstaking decision that is tough but ultimately deemed necessary by the patient and her doctor. Still, I get the rationale behind a 20-week ban. I’m a pro-choice individual, but I’m also personally very...

On June 6, Democrats from across Wisconsin will come to Milwaukee to cast their votes for who they want to be chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin at this year’s state convention. We could talk all day about who is running, the differences between the candidates, their platforms, and their vision for the party as we get closer to the crucial election of 2016. But of the five candidates who are running to represent the party and our values, one candidate’s background remains somewhat of a mystery. Over the past few days, social media has been buzzing about Martha Laning (but not for the positive reasons you’d assume). Laning, for those who don’t know, recently joined the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and then ran for the state Senate in the 9th district. When the votes were totaled, she had lost by a 20-point margin. But we know little else about Laning, where she truly stands on the issues, and what she would do if she were to become chair of the party, (she has yet to rel...