If you’ll read the comment thread following Sikora’s original status update, you’ll see that he defends his original statement multiple times, so it seems pretty clear that Penny Sikora doesn’t place much value on the life of the family dog or cat.

Prosecutors charged Thomas with two felony counts, one for accepting [...]]]> Boy, attorney Michael Maistelman sure is keeping busy these days…

Milwaukee County Supervisor Johnny L. Thomas – the frontrunner in the race for city comptroller – was charged Thursday with accepting a bribe in exchange for promoting a company for a county contract.

Prosecutors charged Thomas with two felony counts, one for accepting a bribe and the other for misconduct in office. Thomas, 43, is chairman of the board’s Finance and Audit Committee.

I had heard rumors of another John Doe investigation in Milwaukee County that involved Supervisor Thomas, so this news isn’t shocking. However, these allegations sure would seem to put a damper on Thomas’ comptroller campaign, which had garnered the support of much of Milwaukee’s liberal establishment, including Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Democratic Rep. Gwen Moore, and Democratic State Sen. Lena Taylor, not to mention Sachin Chheda, the Chair of the Democratic Party of Milwaukee County (who also happened to be Thomas’ campaign manager).

WWII gave politicians and policymakers the gall to unbalance the budget sufficiently to restore the economy. It also gave them the space to rejig the taxation system in a way that made it [...]]]> Philip Pilkington, in an piece taking issue with the tepid review of the future of capitalism in The Financial Times, remarks:

WWII gave politicians and policymakers the gall to unbalance the budget sufficiently to restore the economy. It also gave them the space to rejig the taxation system in a way that made it far more sustainable. If anyone objected, well, they were moving against the war effort, anti-patriotic and hence excluded from the debate.

What lessons should be taken from this? Quite simple ones. Democratic capitalism is a deeply dysfunctional, perhaps even suicidal system. In the good times capitalists and financiers gain ever more power to influence politicians and, after a brief retreat when crisis occurs, they continue to hold this influence when the deflationary pressures set in. Meanwhile, the policymakers convince themselves that the government budget is the same as a household budget – and in this are supported by numerous economists. This leads to a sort of ‘perfect storm’ situation where the budget deficit becomes the main issue of the day and all else is ignored, including the declining economy.

George W. Bush and Barrack Obama never asked Americans to make the requisite revenue sacrifices to realign the economy to sustainability the way FDR did.  Instead, they convinced themselves and those too ignorant to pursue the truth, that we can cut our way to prosperity.  Western democracies are being led by poll watchers, not leaders.  Men and women, on both sides of the aisle, pander to the know-nothings who think that tax cuts lead to prosperity, deficits are always bad, and why can’t the government balance their budget?

The treasury is not at all like your checkbook, you fools.  Balance is not necessarily a good thing.

The unnecessary pain inflicted upon us when leaders obsess over debt and deficit is just stupid.  We’re clearly too dumb as a nation (or perhaps a species) to learn from our history or from the data.

As noted by Ian Millhiser of Think Progress, if a court did accept the RNC’s argument, it [...]]]> In a brief filed on Tuesday in the Fourth Circuit, the Republican National Committee argues that the federal ban on corporate donations is unconstitutional in large part because it applies across the board to all corporations.

As noted by Ian Millhiser of Think Progress, if a court did accept the RNC’s argument, it would have to strike down the entire federal ban on corporate donations, leaving corporations like Koch Industries, Exxon, and Halliburton with the ability to make campaign contributions directly to any candidate they’d like.

As Millhiser points out, “Moreover, if the court accepts the RNC’s argument, it will effectively destroy any limits on the amount of money wealthy individuals or corporation can give to candidates.”

So could we see Gov. Scott Walker (R-Koch Industries)? If Republicans have their way, absolutely.

We watched agape as Americans for Prosperity held an “It’s Working Wisconsin Town Hall” meeting at the Waukesha Expo center.  And as an added bonus, Lisa got a big hug from Mark Block… It was a [...]]]> [This post was co-authored by Lisa Mux and Phil Scarr.  All spelling or grammatical errors belong exclusively to Phil]

We watched agape as Americans for Prosperity held an “It’s Working Wisconsin Town Hall” meeting at the Waukesha Expo center.  And as an added bonus, Lisa got a big hug from Mark Block… It was a magical event!

It was a crisp, bright Saturday morning when eight hundred and fifty Waukesha-area residents gathered under the silver dome of the Waukesha Expo Center to listen to several speakers assembled by the Wisconsin chapter of Americans For Prosperity.  They were there to gloat over the “success” of the Republican economic and social legislation. To the assembled throng of Scott Walker acolytes, these reforms are “working.” But they didn’t come to talk politics, they said. They came to “separate the rhetoric from the reality.” We were there to bear witness to this alternate version of “reality” firsthand.

As we sat listening to the pre-event conversations going on around us, quietly whispering “Oh my god, did you hear that?” to one another, a young man passed out bumper stickers.  Lisa was shocked to find that her brand new blog business cards were eerily similar (i.e. identical!) to the “God Bless Gov. Scott Walker” bumper stickers we’d just been handed.  It was an eerie foreshadowing of the stranger things yet to come.

We settled into our seats behind a woman wearing an Andy Griffith Show t-shirt who said delightedly that she owns twenty such t-shirts. The black and white visages of Andy & Barney looked back at us appearing somewhat bewildered in this strange brew of libertarians, Tea Partiers and Movement Conservatives.  The room slowly filled as we bopped our heads to tunes from the Beach Boys, The Beatles and Steppenwolf.  Phil began to feel the dissonance resonate behind his eyes as John Lennon belted out his anthem Come Together, rumored to be a political anthem in support of Dr. Timothy Leary’s Presidential bid in 1968.

He wear no shoeshine
He got toe jam football
He got monkey finger
He shoot Coca Cola
He say I know you, you know me
One thing I can tell you is
You got to be free
Come together, right now
Over me

Yes, the AFP crowd was humming along to a John Lennon acid trip song, conveniently forgetting that John Lennon was definitely not one of them.  Around us, fellow attendees agreed with one another with many an “I know, I know”  that the state of our state was dire.  The damage done by the unions and the greedy public sector workers was only barely surmountable and that thank the lord that Scott Walker was there to lead them into the sunlit uplands of prosperity!  We were through the looking glass where Alice was nowhere to be found.  She was hanging out with the Red Queen whom she found eminently more reasonable than any of these folks.

Shortly after 10am, Luke Hilgemann was introduced as the new State Director of the Americans For Prosperity Foundation. Luke served as the Chief of Staff for the Majority Leader of the State Assembly, and helped craft one of the most reactionary legislative agendas in our state’s history, including such gems as Conceal and Carry, Voter ID, and the Castle Doctrine.

Hilgemann said,  “This forum is meant to arm you with the facts, so that you can spread the Good News in your neighborhoods and communities. While we welcome opposing viewpoints, we will adhere to a strict zero tolerance policy for outbursts and interruptions of today’s discussion, and we have several law enforcement officers and personal security to help us do so… Unlike Madison, we can and will have respectful dialogue here today.”  In other words, get out of line, hippie, and it’s the pepper spray for you.

At that point, Lisa wanted to scream into a pillow.

Phil busied himself by focusing on the Reality Distortion Field that was being constructed before our very eyes from “charm, charisma, bravado, hyperbole, marketing, appeasement, and persistence.”  And a very, very, very selective use of data.

For instance, we’ve all heard the stories from the right about how the “tools” are working, about how the state managed to avoid thousands of layoffs.  We heard speakers tell us how well the “tools” were working and the state managed to avoid thousands of layoffs.  We saw a video telling us how well the “tools” were working and the state managed to avoid thousands of layoffs.  We heard how this district or that district had saved money or lowered taxes.  But the reality is that, across the state, tax bills are up.  And not by a little, but sometimes by quite a lot.

But we were told how layoffs were avoided because of the “tools.”  The crowd cheered.  The crowd knew that these heroes on the stage were the real friends of the workers!  It was these men who had saved the teacher’s jobs!  And taught them the value of “shared sacrifice” to boot!  Civic virtuousness writ large!

This is what “no layoffs” of public employees looks like in Wisconsin.

We don’t know about you, but if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, and falls off a cliff like a duck… I’m willing to bet it’s a duck.  Now whether this duck was achieved with pink slips or intimidation, the economic result is the same.  More people out of work in Wisconsin.  I’m always amazed that Republicans believe that money spent by public sector workers is one color, while money spent by private sector workers is another color.  Last time we looked, there weren’t two kinds of money.  It was all (mostly) green.

“Wisconsin is stronger than ever,” we heard.  But yet there was no mention of the loss of private sector jobs across Wisconsin.  The ongoing hemorrhaging of good paying work was unsurprisingly absent from the lectern.  Where was this chart, for instance?

“We’re not here to talk about politics.  Instead, we are here to separate the rhetoric from the reality on what the budget reforms … have done for our state.”

Apparently anything that can be done for the state can be done to the state, and to the citizens.  This brings me to the next linguistic quirk Lisa and we noticed from each and every speaker.  The Expo Center was not filled with citizens, it was filled with taxpayers.  Understand?  This was a room full of victims of greedy unions and public workers, not members of a community.

Citizens versus Taxpayers

Citizens have responsibilities and obligations in a democratic society.

The obligations of citizenship were deeply connected into one’s everyday life in the polis. To be truly human, one had to be an active citizen to the community, which Aristotle famously expressed: “To take no part in the running of the community’s affairs is to be either a beast or a god!” This form of citizenship was based on obligations of citizens towards the community, rather than rights given to the citizens of the community. … Also, citizens of the polis saw obligations to the community as an opportunity to be virtuous, it was a source of honour and respect. In Athens, citizens were both ruler and ruled, important political and judicial offices were rotated and all citizens had the right to speak and vote in the political assembly.

But taxpayers are only obligated and put-upon.  A taxpayer is someone forced to pay a tax.

A tax may be defined as a “pecuniary burden laid upon individuals or property owners to support the government [...] a payment exacted by legislative authority.”^[1] A tax “is not a voluntary payment or donation, but an enforced contribution, exacted pursuant to legislative authority” and is “any contribution imposed by government [...] whether under the name of toll, tribute, tallage, gabel, impost, duty, custom, excise, subsidy, aid, supply, or other name.”^[1]

Being a citizen is an affirmative state, you are a participant in the social contract, but a taxpayer is a victim of the capricious and avaricious state.  The rhetorical use of taxpayer as a replacement for citizen permits conservatives to play the victim, something they have done throughout history to help define themselves.

But I will say this: the sensibility you describe – experiencing or identifying oneself as a victim — is a consistent feature of conservative thought. Regardless of whether the ideologue or camp follower of conservatism sees him or herself as a victim, the idea of victimhood plays a critical part in conservatism. Going back to Burke. Marie Antoinette is the first great victim of the conservative canon. The sovereign who Joseph de Maistre recommends be restored to power once the counterrevolution prevails – someone Maistre describes as being schooled in the ways of adversity, who’s been brought low by fortune and thus learned a thing or two – he’s a victim (and Maistre recommends him to power on the basis of that victimhood). William Graham Sumner’s “forgotten man” is another victim. Nietzsche’s master class, in fact, is a victim. So is Nixon’s silent majority. And so on.

Initially, I thought this was all instrumental and cynical: understanding that the lingua franca of democratic thought is the democratic appeal to the masses, the conservative turns the possessor into the dispossessed. But over time I’ve come to think that the victim is a far more fundamental, and sincere, figure in the conservative canon. Because not only does he appeal to us as a figure of compassion or pity, but he’s also someone who has a very particular claim on us: he demands to be made whole. In other words, he’s a rallying figure, someone whose losses – a country house, a plantation, a factory, a white skin – ought to be recompensed.

What’s more, when you turn your privileged class into a group of victims – not just rhetorically but in reality (the French Revolution really did produces losses among the aristocracy; Emancipation really did divest the master class of privilege and property) – they come to possess an attribute that is universally shared: loss. Their loss is quite different from that of the ordinary run of humanity, but loss is loss. I’ve sometimes wondered whether that might not be the right’s singular bid for universalism: it speaks for the loser everywhere.

But as you say, it speaks for the loser not by democratizing society – making things more equal – but by making it more elite, more privilege, more unequal.

It was an amazing experience to hear these folks talk about how the world was against them and how the greed and spite of the unions was driving the state to wreck and ruin.  How the unions were stealing their money.  In this sense, these folks certainly were not citizens in any way, shape or form.

Naomi Klein Makes an Appearance!

Early on, the audience was told that the forces arrayed against the beleaguered taxpayers told everyone that “the sky would fall” if these budgetary actions were taken.  These false victims of the left were lying.  The sky did not fall.  But they neglected to remind the audience that the entire premise of the “budget repair bill” was based on the belief that… for the lack of a better term… the sky would fall if we didn’t end collective bargaining and crush the public unions.  That “Shock Doctrine” of a faux fiscal crisis was used to justify the actions taken by the Republicans.  It wasn’t the Democrats or the Unions who said the sky would fall, it was the conservatives!

Naomi Klein was right.  The Republicans used the words of disaster capitalism to advance their radical agenda to destroy what makes Wisconsin great, and they then turn aournd and accused their political adversaries of using the rhetoric of disaster when in fact they were the ones who warned of disaster.

They used the Shock Doctrine to impose their radical agenda on the citizens of Wisconsin and then they accuse their opponents of claiming the sky was falling.  Hutzpah, indeed!

Taxes Went Up Not Down!

Contrary to the rhetoric of lower taxes, the facts show that taxes in Wisconsin went up.  Behold, the lie of lower taxes

MADISON—State-local governments collected $25.9 billion in taxes and fees in fiscal year 2011, 5.4% more than in 2010. This year’s tax burden was the highest since 2006, reflecting 2009-10 tax increases and a modest economic recovery. These findings are from a new Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance (WISTAX) report, “Postrecession Snapshot: Total Taxes in 2011.” WISTAX is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to public policy research and citizen education.

Where are the Qualified Workers?

Another theme that permeated the discussion of economics was the assertion that many companies can’t find qualified workers.  The claim was made that there are 32,000 unfilled positions for skilled workers that employers cannot find. Why? Because we continue to discount the value of education for our workforce, training and re-training has taken a back seat to unprecedented corporate austerity in training budgets.

A recent survey of Wisconsin businesses conducted by the WMC confirms this problem.  Training dollars for employees have declined in recent years and this may go a long way to explaining why employers are struggling finding qualified people.

And yet, despite the difficulty of finding qualified applicants, Wisconsin business leaders continue to starve their employees for training.

From a training peak in 2005, training dollars have dropped ever since.

Representative Vos: “When you hear the facts that you have today, and your neighbor or your friend or your spouse, decides to complain about what’s been done, take a moment…and share the facts because the only way we are going to win this argument is because we know the truth is on our side.”  Is it, Mr. Vos?  Is it really?

On our way out, we thought we might catch a glimpse of Mark Block aka The Smoking Man, and we were tickled to find him in the front of the Expo Center. Confronted with the reality of The Smoking man, we were unable to develop a coherent question, so Lisa loitered nearby as Phil tried to snap a picture. Without warning, Lisa was drawn into his malodorous embrace, and the photo was snapped for posterity.

After this “Close Encounter of the Block Kind,” we rushed for the door, fleeing the shadows of Reagan and GW Bush and darted into the cold winter sunshine.  We had survived, bruised but unbroken.

After all, Sup. Dimitrijevic made it abundantly clear to [...]]]> According to Steve Schultze of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, County Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic has a “burning desire” to advance to the chairmanship of the Milwaukee County Board, but I think “all-consuming” is the more appropriate term to describe Dimitrijevic’s desire to be County Board Chair.

After all, Sup. Dimitrijevic made it abundantly clear to folks at Milwaukee’s Drinking Liberally that she wanted the job, and anyone who’s been following both current and recent County Board races can see her fingerprints all over a number of races, presumably to help elect candidates who will assure Dimitrijevic of having locked up the votes she needs to be elected the next County Board Chair. To that end, I’ve heard Sup. Dimitrijevic comment that the County Board redistricting plan that eliminated Sup. Joe Rice’s seat on the Board was implemented specifically to remove a conservative voice from the County Board, which would only bolster Dimitrijevic’s plans.

Personally, I’m not a fan of any one elected official -whether liberal or conservative – having too much influence over a group of their colleagues, and given how many of her fellow supervisors Dimitrijevic has helped get elected, she certainly seems to hold a great deal of influence over a number of her fellow supervisors. Obviously I’m not privy to what goes on behind the scenes with the County Board, so I could certainly be off base, but at any rate I certainly hope an alternative to Marina Dimitrijevic will emerge to challenge her for County Board Chair.

Under the new law signed by President Obama, any suspect who is a member of [...]]]> Why am I not surprised President Obama signed this into law?

President Barack Obama signed a wide-ranging defense bill into law Saturday despite having “serious reservations” about provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists.

Under the new law signed by President Obama, any suspect who is a member of al-Qaida or “associated forces” and involved in planning or attempting to carry out an attack on the United States or its coalition partners would be subjected to military custody. Individuals placed in military custody – including U.S. citizens – would not have the same rights to legal counsel as if they were in the custody of regular law enforcement officials.

Today’s press release is just one of many issued by the folks at the DPW every day, but given that today marks the 70th anniversary of the Japanese sneak [...]]]> “One-Year Anniversary of Scott Walker’s Sneak Attack on Wisconsin” screams the headline of a press release issued today by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW).

Today’s press release is just one of many issued by the folks at the DPW every day, but given that today marks the 70th anniversary of the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, I just think the use of the term “sneak attack” is….well….dumb.

Or maybe a better word is cringe-worthy.

From WSAU:

MILWAUKEE (WSAU) Several hundred protestors closed a bridge over I-43 in Milwaukee for two hours late yesterday. Four people were [...]]]> Activists from Occupy Milwaukee shut down a bridge over I-43 yesterday for two hours in a symbolic gesture to bring attention to income inequality and the fragile state of our national infrastructure.

Bridge occupied in Milwaukee jobs protest (Mike Gold)

From WSAU:

MILWAUKEE (WSAU) Several hundred protestors closed a bridge over I-43 in Milwaukee for two hours late yesterday. Four people were arrested. But Police Chief Ed Flynn said he refused to break up the crowd because he didn’t want to fulfill their quote, “martyrdom fantasies.” They then declared victory.

The protest demanded economic equality, and was among numerous demonstrations around the country exactly two months after the first Occupy Wall Street protests in New York. Milwaukee’s event began in a nearby park, with signs reading “Tax the Rich Now” and “Jobs, Not War.” The group eventually marched onto Milwaukee’s North Avenue bridge.

A small group of College Republicans counter-protested (i.e. reacted) nearby.

Whitewater’s College Republicans put on a counter-demonstration, saying the Republican Walker cut the state’s deficit, and is making the state more business-friendly.

Once again, the GOP completely missed the point of the protest.  The protest wasn’t against Walker or Wisconsin business, it was a protest against income inequality and the economic destruction wrought by financial capitalism.  The lack of understanding (willful or otherwise) by these young Republicans is quite telling. Rather than engage the debate on the terms laid out by the protesters, they simply choose to ignore the message and counter-protest against…. someone else.  Some other group that is calling for Walker’s recall.

The Republican fascination with their own echo chamber is remarkable.  They’ve expended too much energy assembling men from straw to knock down that they’ve lost the ability to conduct meaningful conversation.  It’s talking points and vitriol.  They seem to have lost the ability, at least in this instance, to engage in a meaningful discussion on the issues raised by the protesters.  Are we to infer from this that the Young Republicans feel as does Dennis Gartman?

We celebrate income disparity and we applaud the growing margins between the bottom 20% of American society and the upper 20% for it is evidence of what has made America a great country. It is the chance to have a huge income… to make something of one’s self; to begin a business and become a millionaire legally and on one’s own that separates the US from most other nations of the world. Do we feel bad for the growing gap between the rich and the poor in the US? Of course not; we celebrate it, for we were poor once and we are reasonably wealthy now. We did it on our own, by the sheet dint of will, tenacity, street smarts and the like. That is why immigrants come to the US: to join the disparate income earners at the upper levels of society and to leave poverty behind. Income inequality? Give us a break? God bless income disparity and those who have succeeded, and shame upon the OWS crowd who take us to task for our success and wallow in their own failure. Income disparity? Feh! What we despise is government that imposes rules that prohibit or make it difficult to make even more money; to employ even more people; to give even more sums to the charities of our choice. That is what we despise… oh, and next question please.

How very Randian…

Oh dear, I seem to have constructed a straw man… Naughty, naughty!