Wisconsin Senator Scott Fiztgerald Lets The Cat Out of The Bag AGAIN!

First he screwed up by telling Fox News host Meghan Kelly the core reason the WI GOP is so hell bent on robbing families and eliminating Worker’s rights. Which then led to the super rush to quickly pass the bill in a way that didn’t require a quorum since the 14 Democratic senators were staying in Illinois to deny the very quorum they needed.

That bill however has now been blocked by a WI judge because the GOP violated Wisconsin’s open meetings law and will most likely end up in the state Supreme Court. On April 5th Wisconsin goes to the polls to elect a state Supreme Court Judge. It’s down to GOP backed David Prosser who is pledging to stand behind the GOP and JoAnne Kloppenburg who has pledge to stand with the law. In just this past week two of Prosser’s long time supporters and campaign operatives have pulled out oof his campaign to endorse Kloppenburg.

What did Fitzgerald slip up and admit to Meghan? That taking away collective bargaining rights and busting up unions is really about trying to defund President Obama’s campaign for re-election. You see these delusional self serving, lying, manipulative, affair having, non-living in their districts, girlfriend hiring GOP in Wisconsin really think they can destroy Obama by eliminating union-dues which many times are used to support political candidates.

FITZGERALD: Well if they flip the state senate, which is obviously their goal with eight recalls going on right now, they can take control of the labor unions.

If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you’re going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin.

Tomorrow voters go to the polls. But, true to Fitzgerald form Scott just couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He assured everyone attending the same event he did yesterday knew that Prosser would take care of them. Kloppenburg will take care of following the law.

“If Prosser Wins all of Walker’s bills go into effect. If Kloppenburg wins everything will be blocked and we are dead.”

Check back later for a post on one of Wisconsin’s new state employees. Hired by Scott Walker, paid for by his father.

WI GOP Shows They Don’t Have The Maturity to Lead

As you might have heard the fight is still on against the disastrous budget bill in Wisconsin that includes destroying collective bargaining rights. The rights that Milwaukee’s many Polish immigrants fought for and some even died for so that worker’s could have a say in the workplace. That was the Bay View Massacre in 1896. Today those very workers are being mocked and so are their descendants and other Wisconsin citizens by Republican Governor Scott Walker and his dirty GOP co-horts.

When unable to get the necessary quorum to pass the bill they played ditry and removed fiscal items that required the quorum and then voted without delay to pass the ban on collective bargaining. However, they violated on camera no less, the 24 hour open meetings law in Wisconsin.

Then the bill went to court due to the violation of the 24 hour open meetings law and a judge (appointed by former Republican Governor Tommy Thompson) ruled they had indeed violated that law and thereby issued a restraining order against publication of the bill.

But this new WI GOP doesn’t believe laws apply to them or any actions they take. Since they could not force the Secretary of State to publish at law because he was following the judge’s order they forced another department to publish the law in spite of the judge’s ruling.

Back to court yesterday where again the Judge ruled on thie side of the people and the LAW.

“Now that I’ve made my earlier order as clear as it possibly can be, I must state that those who act in open and willful defiance of the court order place not only themselves at peril of sanctions, they also jeopardize the financial and the governmental stability of the state of Wisconsin,” Sumi said.

Her statement appeared to be a warning to state agencies, such as the state Department of Administration, that have begin implementing the union bill despite a temporary restraining order that Sumi issued on March 18 and the unsettled question about whether publication of the law by the Legislative Reference Bureau on Friday was enough to implement the law.

“Apparently that language was either misunderstood or ignored, but what I said was, ‘the further implementation of 2011 Wisconsin Act 10 is enjoined,’ ” Sumi said. “That’s what I now want to make crystal clear.”

State Department of Justice Executive Assistant Steven Means said afterward that state agencies like DOA are not parties to the lawsuit and are not subject to Sumi’s restraining order. But he stopped short of saying what advice DOJ will give DOA in light of the order.

After the latest ruling the GOP felt compelled to publicly apologize to the Judge in the case for ignoring her previous ruling:

The Republican Party of Dane County recognizes that Judge Sumi is a leftist living in Dane County. Her friends are leftists living in Dane County. Her son is a left wing activist in Dane County. She goes to cocktail parties held by leftists in Dane County. She shops at organic
gourmet food shops run by leftists living in Dane County. If she were to enforce the law of Wisconsin and do what was in the best interest of the people of Wisconsin, she’d be exiled from her lifestyle. She’d lose her friends!

The leadership of the Republican Party of Dane County have all made the choice to stand against the Dane County elite. We accept that Left feels righteous vandalizing our homes and keying our cars. It’s only fair. We disagree based upon logic and principle. That is intolerable! We prioritize the Constitution and the well being of the people of Wisconsin over f oie gras at cocktail parties. That’s the choice we made. We respect Judge Sumi’s decision to live her life with the rich diversity that liberals cherish.

This from the very people that raced to D.C. to be rewarded by the lobbyists for destroying bargaining rights in their state.

So you got that Wisconsin? If you defend the rights of workers, the middle class or the law you are an elitist lefist? If you take money from lobbyists, the Koch Brothers and corporations you’re all about upholding the constituion.

Update: Less than an hour ago Walker made it clear they will again ignore and violate the law:

Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch said he has a legal obligation to implement all laws that have been passed by the Legislature, signed by Gov. Scott Walker and “published into law.”

Huebsch added that the Department of Justice and his legal counsel agree that the measure has met those requirements “and is now effective law.”

“It is my duty to administer that law,” he said.

Huebsch’s comments raise questions about whether he or other state officials could be held in contempt of court after a hearing Tuesday, when Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi made it clear that any further implementation of the law is barred.

If We’re So Broke How Come Billionaire Companies Pay No Taxes?

So, you keep hearing the GOP and the Tea Party types tell us how broke we are. GOP is trying to convince us that taking money from Meals on Wheels, Medicare, Social Security, Planned Parenthood, WIC, Unemployment, etc. in order to pay down the debt and reduce the deficit.

They fought Obama hard demanding he leave George Bush’s tax cut for the wealthiest 2% in the country for another two years. They forced him to make a deal with them so he could actually pass legislation that helps the average American household. Keep in mind, President Obama is the person you have to fear. I mean seriously I’d be scared too if there was a guy in the White House telling the wealthy and the corporations that the free ride they’ve gotten used to since the Supreme Court appointed George Bush to the position of President of The United States.

Before G.W. and his handlers took over the top 2% in the country were paying close to 36% in taxes under Bill Clinton. Refresh your memories if you need to but that helped to create the BUDGET SURPLUS that G.W. quickly squandered away. Problem is he also cut their taxes so low there was no way to replace that, so they cooked the books. The left the cost of the wars and countless other things from the budget, so it didn’t look too bad to Americans.

Then American got a new President. One that told us almost immediately the deficit was actually much higher than reported by the previous administration because they omitted things like the cost of war.

But here we have a list of who has all the money and why the middle class, women, seniors and the poor are now being told it is up to them to share the sacrifice but what about these people?

When do share they begin sharing the sacrifice?

1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings.

2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion.

3) Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS.

4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009.

5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year.

6) Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction.

7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department.

8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury.

9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2007 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction.

10) Over the past five years, Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders was nice enough to put the list above together for Americans so they can see just who really matters in this country now. It isn’t us folks, it’s them.

Sanders has called for closing corporate tax loopholes and eliminating tax breaks for oil and gas companies. He also introduced legislation to impose a 5.4 percent surtax on millionaires that would yield up to $50 billion a year. The senator has said that spending cuts must be paired with new revenue so the federal budget is not balanced solely on the backs of working families.

“We have a deficit problem. It has to be addressed,” Sanders said, “but it cannot be addressed on the backs of the sick, the elderly, the poor, young people, the most vulnerable in this country. The wealthiest people and the largest corporations in this country have got to contribute.

Will we sit by and continue allowing the Koch funded Tea Party and GOP to lie to us while bashing the President so they can continue rewarding the wealthiest in this country with the money they are stealing from us?

Donald Trump’s Birth Certificate: What’s The Donald Hiding?

I was originally going to ignore this story. I really don’t believe this blowhard has any desire to be President, but he does have a show on TV right now so I guess he’s following the Sarah Palin plan of constant self promotion. Although in Mrs. Palin’s case it isn’t turning out the way she planned.

So this serial filer for bankruptcy has been running around the country letting everyone know he’s ‘suddenly’ concerned that President Obama was not born in this country. Even more ludicrous this fraud claims Obama has never, ever provided the document for the public.

Well first Donald is telling a blatant lie. The President’s birth certificate has been available for the public since 2007 when he got into the race for the position. As you can see from Fact Check.org who actually saw, touched, felt and reviewed the Certificate the President provided.

Picture of the raised seal on President Obama's birtch certificate

“It’s inconceivable that, after four years of questioning, the president still hasn’t produced his birth certificate,” Trump told Newsmax. “I’m just asking President Obama to show the public his birth certificate. Why’s he making an issue out of this?” To prove how easy it was for a household employee to find his birth certificate, Trump, 64, crowed, “It took me one hour to get my birth certificate.”

Yet apparently whatever Donald was able to obtain isn’t an official birth certificate issued by the NY City Dept of Health. Instead he provided a certificate of birth from a hospital in NY.

From the Smoking Gun:

As seen above, he provided the conservative web site with what he purports to be his birth certificate.

Except the document is not an official New York City birth certificate, but rather a document generated by Jamaica Hospital, where Trump’s mother Mary reportedly gave birth in June 1946. Official birth certificates are issued (and maintained) by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Office of Vital Records.

So, what is Trump trying to conceal?

On a possibly related note, Jamaica Hospital has been the recipient of significant financial largest from the Trump family. In fact, the Queens institution includes the Trump Pavilion, a nursing and rehabilitation facility that was named for Mary Trump.

What Donald Trump claims is his 'official' birth certificate

So The Donald provided a conservative website this as his official certificate of birth. If Trump thinks this passes the smell test he’s been firing the wrong guy because he obviously isn’t wise enough to realize this is a certificate of birth. You know kind of like the same type of certificate you’d receive fro being in the Boy Scouts.

This should also be noted too while we’re at it:
“Trump’s mother, it should be noted, was born in Scotland, which is not part of the United States. His plane is registered in the Bahamas, also a foreign country. This fact pattern — along with the wave of new questions surrounding what he claims is a birth certificate — raises serious questions about his eligibility to serve as President of the United States.”

Nothing official here Donald. Try again.

Florida Elects Governor Engaging in Criminal Activity

Wake Up Florida. You elected a man to run your state that was previously convicted of fraud against the U.S Government and American Taxpayers by defrauding the Medicare System. This man now is in charge of a state that has one of the highest numbers of seniors as residents.

All around the country voters went against their best interests being led to the slaughter with lies, intimidation, fears of ‘spreading their wealth’, fox propoganda and anti-Obama rhetoric. The result is proving to be disastrous for Americans all across the country.

The ones who will end up most in need are the very ones that handed these criminals the reins. Just look at Florida.

Disgusting! FL Teabag Governor Uses Office to Rake in BILLIONS!

This is Part XVI of MY STUPID STATE where I document what happens when a state full of Democrats elect a veto-proof, right-wing legislature along with a teabag, CRIMINAL governor to lead us. (Once again, yes–an actual bona-fide criminal who literally stole from seniors, who subsequently elected him.) This is my documentation of my beloved but idiotic state of Florida’s slow decent into chaos.

How bad can it get? At least we are finally seeing the REAL reason he wanted to be governor. First, let me bring you up to speed with 5 things you need to know:

1. Rick Scott made millions as CEO of Columbia/HCA. Well, technically, he made it through Medicare fraud, but Columbia was the vehicle.

2. After he was kicked out, he used his stolen money to found an urgent-care chain called Solantic. Shocking…Solantic also engaged in multiple, multiple forms of fraud.

3. Scott absolutely hated the health care reform bill. In 2009, he founded a national front group to run ads to tell people just how bad it would be for them. He spend 5 million of his own money just to let us know this…with no ulterior motive whatsoever.

4. He had a COMPLETE lack of interest in anything about Florida–until he suddenly decided to run for office last year. He spent 70 million of his own funds to win it.

5. In case I forgot to mention it. HE. IS. A. F%^&ING. CRIMINAL.

So these facts we well known and available information for voters in Florida BEFORE they went to the polls. Did the ignore it? Not Research?

Yet look closer. From his budget proposal to policies he pushed just last week, we have one BIG reason he is now our governor.

In just four short years in office, Scottie is poised to make such a massive fortune that he could hire a Koch brother to plunge his toilet!

Wait. Isn’t he rich already? He listed his net worth at $219 million when submitting the election forms. That would be plenty for most, but for people like Scott, it is abject poverty when you look at multi-billionaires like the Koch brothers. And for people like that, it is never enough. Its the same reason they fight tooth and nail for extra tax cuts and don’t care if we have to cut every social service, kick every poor, disabled kid, and spit on every teacher to get it.

Right now, it is generous to say that Scott has a “questionable” relationship with Solantic. His co-founder at Solantic vehemenently denies that Scott is involved in day-to-day business. In fact, she said that he no longer takes business calls after he was elected. (I would really f%^#ing hope a governor of a major state wouldn’t also try to run a business, but she thought it was a big concession.)

But us libral critics, never satisfied, selfishly insisted he do more to sever the financial relationship with Solantic in order to avoid an obvious conflict of interest.

And in January, our ethical governor FINALLY did. He transfered every bit of his Solantic stock.

Case closed.

I should be happy. But for some reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he is somehow still invested in Solantic.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that the person he transferred all of the stock to WAS HIS WIFE!

Now, Florida does have an Ethics Commmission. But this underfunded, toothless agency did nothing after three visits from Scott’s legal team. Want a transcript of the meetings under our Sunshine Laws? Too bad. There weren’t any! Whoops. They must have forgot… three times in a row.

Bottom line… Solantic makes money, Rick Scott’s wife makes money, and I’m sure somehow, someway, Rick Scott will get a piece of that.

But our governor wouldn’t be so blatant as to make any policy to funnel money to Solantic? My God, we would have to be some kind of stupid state to overlook something like that.

You be the judge:

1. Solantic primarily deals with people who have high premiums or no insurance. The main competitor for Solantic are publically-funded state clinics run by the FL Dept. of Health. Scott’s budget proposal cuts ALL funding to these clinics!

(Yes, more than one person has pointed out the irony of him wanting pill mills to stay open while completely eliminating clinics that help the poorest Floridians.)

With the elimination of its biggest competitor, SOLANTIC profits will explode.

2. Gov. Scott wants to require ALL RECIPIENTS OF MEDICAID TO JOIN PRIVATE HMOs.

By pure coincidence, Rick Scott’s wife’s company doesn’t accept Medicaid, but SOLANTIC does accept private Medicaid HMO reimbursments! (ca-ching)

No conflict of interest there.

3. As you learned if you watched Jon Stewart’s hilarious take on Ric Scott last Thursday, the man signed an executive order requiring random drug testing of state employees at least once a quarter along with all applicants for state jobs. He is also pushing the right-wing legislature to use drug test harrassment for another group the GOP hates…welfare recipients.

We are talking hundreds of thousands of Floridians here going to clinics several times a year at least to get these tests. Hey, guess what clinic offers drug testing as a primary service?? Rhymes with MOLE-ANTIC!

4. Biggest one so far. The Palm Beach Post did a great article on this. Although Gov. Mr. Burns hates “Obamacare”, he is gladly lobbying like hell for a massive federal block grant from a state waiver that the Act allows. The article says this type of grant is worth BEEEEELL-IONS.

Slick Rick’s health policy adviser, Michael Cannon, said it would be in the form of health vouchers that consumers can use as cash for direct-pay medical care. This benefits particular clinics where patients like to pay cash.

Clinics like, (wait for it)….SOL….. (OK, I think you get the point now.)

Thankfully, our Florida Commission on Ethics has to decide whether that last one is a conflict of interest. Yes, that commission.

By the way, the commission has 9 members… 5 of which are picked by the governor. So… ya know. Just count on him to do the right thing.

It took me just a few minutes to look a little further on Rick Scott. Politicfacts account of the Columbia/HCA fraud
Was Scott running Columbia/HCA when it found itself at the center of a massive federal investigation? Yes.

Did the company pay a record $1.7 billion in government penalties and fines? Yes, Columbia/HCA paid.

And as we checked in this item, did his former company commit fraud? Yes, it pleaded guilty to fraud charges as part of a settlement.

Of course, the million-dollar question is how much of the blame ultimately falls on Scott? And that’s an answer we can’t provide.

Scott was in charge so he bears some responsibility and has said so. But there has yet to come to light any detail of how much he knew, and when he knew it.

Though that won’t keep us from looking.

McCollum’s campaign, in a statement, said Rick Scott’s former company Columbia/HCA committed fraud. We rate the statement True.

would have enough for me as a voter to have serious reservations about this man.

Did FL voters not know, not care? How did they make such a grave mistake?

Update: Founds this great article also on Governor Rick Scott and his dirty deeds.

14 Felonies Later, Gov Rick Scott Wants Taxpayers to Fund His Clinics

Big daddy is in the house, and he’s cleaning up government fraud and waste by those awful, horrible, lazy, entitled state workers and the welfare bums won’t get away with it anymore! In other words, keep your eye over here, on the state workers and the welfare recipients while Scott dips his hands into the wide-open cookie jar of your tax dollars and just takes what he wants. After Enron, our non-activisty supreme court ruled that enriching oneself at the taxpayers cost is not illegal. So technically, Scott’s theft of the taxpayers to enrich himself is not prosecutable this time around.

No wonder he ran for office.

Florida does, however, have an ethics code that supposedly prevents them using their office for private gain. Scott spokespeople led voters to believe that Scott would recuse himself regulatory decisions that might impact his single largest financial holding, Solantic, since he refused to put the stocks in a blind trust.

Speaking of money, those drug tests will cost 2-3 million a year for taxpayers, plus the costs of the inevitable litigation. But it’s worth it, Scott’s administration assures us, for the peace of mind that your tax dollars won’t be paying for some drug addict to have a job.

Again, no need to concern yourself with Scott’s fortunes, as he owns a stake in S&S Family Entertainment as well as having been tied to Fox News via WebMD and Fit TV. Color yourself shocked. You might also like to know that Solantic has been subjected to numerous employment discrimination suits, stemming from an alleged Scott policy of not hiring overweight or elderly people. Also, Scott was once business partners with George W Bush.

And we wonder why things aren’t going well in Florida….

It seems that nosing into private healthcare decisions and playing hall-monitor to state employees is what Republicans do best. Of course, they do this best when they’re using your tax dollars to enrich their cronies and themselves.

If Scott wanted to put his money where his mouth is, he’d issue random drug tests for his doctors and nurses at Solantic, as well as monthly independent audits of the books. We can’t be too careful, after all. We have a known fraudster at the helm in Florida and he’s turning taxpayer money over to his private company. Kinda seems like we better keep an eye on him.

And he’d better keep an eye on his wife.

Wow this is just amazing. Florida better get looking into way of getting rid of this crook. This could be catastrophic for those people. Get with the movement Florida and Recall Rick Scott.

Criminals: WI Republicans Publish Bill Despite Judge’s Order

WI Republicans Publish Collective Bargaining Bill Despite Restraining Order

Here’s more from the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel — Collective bargaining bill published despite restraining order:

In a stunning twist, controversial legislation limiting collective bargaining for public workers was published on Friday despite a judge’s hold on the measure, sparking a dispute over whether it takes effect Saturday.

The legislation was published Friday to the Legislature’s website with a footnote that acknowledges the restraining order by a Dane County judge. But the posting says state law “requires the Legislative Reference Bureau to publish every act within 10 working days after its date of enactment.”

The measure sparked massive protests at the Capitol and lawsuits by opponents because it would eliminate the ability of most public workers to bargain over anything but wages.

The restraining order was issued against Democratic Secretary of State Doug La Follette. But the bill was published by the reference bureau, which was not named in the restraining order.

Laws normally take effect a day after they are published, and a top GOP lawmaker said that meant it will become law Saturday. But the nonpartisan legislative official who published the law disagreed.

“I think this is a ministerial act that forwards it to the secretary of state,” said Stephen Miller, director of the Legislative Reference Bureau. “I don’t think this act makes it become effective. My understanding is that the secretary of state has to publish it in the (official state) newspaper for it to become effective.”

Walker signed the bill March 11. Under state law, it must be published within 10 working days, which was Friday.

The law has not been printed in the Wisconsin State Journal, the official state newspaper, as other laws are. Late Friday, State Journal publisher Bill Johnston said in an email that the notice for the law had been scheduled to run but had been canceled. He did not elaborate.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) claimed it didn’t matter that it hasn’t appeared in the paper.

“It’s published,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s law. That’s what I contend.”

Fitzgerald and Miller met Friday. Miller said Fitzgerald asked him to publish the law and, after reading the statutes, Miller agreed that he could do so. He said he has never had something similar happen with the publication of a law during his 12 years running the reference bureau.

After the restraining order was issued on March 18, La Follette sent a letter that same day to the reference bureau rescinding earlier instructions to publish the bill on Friday. “I further instruct you to remove all reference to March 25, 2011, as the publication date and not to proceed with publication until I contact you with a new publication date,” his letter said.

Walker’s top cabinet official, Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch, gave only a brief statement reacting to Friday’s news.

“Today the administration was notified that the LRB published the budget-repair bill as required by law,” he said. “The administration will carry out the law as required.”

Meanwhile Wisconsinites are out if full force on this beautiful and sunny Saturday collecting Recall Senators to put a stop to the assault on WI Democracy. Join them won’t you.

WI’s Walker Targeting Job Opportunities for Students and Young Adults

Walker suspends apprentice rules

In an executive order that was quietly released, Gov. Scott Walker recently suspended rules requiring contractors on state construction projects to employ workers under the state’s apprenticeship program. The rules have existed since 1971. One Milwaukee-area lawmaker is protesting Walker’s order, saying it will hurt efforts to employ minorities in the construction trades in Wisconsin.

In the apprenticeship program, which is overseen by the state Department of Workforce Development, contractors provide on-the-job training in a skilled trade to apprentices and also pay them wages as they attend classes at a technical college or other institution. The program is carried out at the local level by the state’s 94 local trade committees, boards staffed by local employer and employee representatives.

The program is voluntary. In 1971, to encourage contractors to join it, Democratic Gov. Pat Lucey first issued an executive order requiring contractors awarded state construction contracts to participate in the program and employ apprentices. In 2005, in another order, Doyle, also a Democrat, revised the requirements, hoping to strengthen them and step up state enforcement. These rules stood until Walker’s own order earlier this month.

So he isn’t content going after the middle class worker he now wants to make sure that ‘middle class’ no longer exists in his state. Does Walker understand what he is doing? It appears he’s hell bent on making Wisconsin citizens work for nothing in return and that his cuts are strictly designed to target the most in need.

For many years, the state apprenticeship program has been a focus of efforts to diversify to construction trades in Wisconsin. State Rep. Barbara Toles (D-Milwaukee) says suspending the rules “will negatively impact people’s ability to gain access to apprenticeships, especially minorities and women.”

According to the representative, the apprenticeship program “is practically the only path to employment in the construction trades for minorities and women.”

Walker’s executive order, his 18th, was not distributed as a press release, unlike the prior 17, each of which can still be read on the “Media Center” section of the governor’s website.

John Mielke, vice-president of the Associated Builders and Contractors, a trade association representing non-union contractors, told The Daily Reporter in January that the first thing he’d like the new governor to do “is rescind Executive Order 108” – Doyle order requiring apprentices on state projects. Mielke said DWD, in response to the order, had created 50 pages of new rules. “It has taken on a life of its own. It’s become a multi-headed beast, and I would urge the governor to kill it quickly.”

Maybe this idiot’s entire goal is to force people to leave his state? Maybe that is his only plan to offset what the Koch Brothers won’t pay so he thinks forcing people to relocate will save WI money.

Scotty sure is making it easier for Wisconsinites to recall him in January 2012. In fact it appears he’s hell bent on that too.

Welcome to Walker’s Wisconsin

To WI Governor Scott Walker apparently ‘Open For Business’ only means his wallet because he sure isn’t doing much to attract employers to the state. In fact the state has lost over 2,000 jobs since his inauguration. Unless you count rewarding an Illinois businessmen who donated stealthily to your campaign by paying him $1.25 million in moving expenses to move his business just over the state border so he too can have their taxes paid by WI citizens, while employing out of state workers who can now enjoy the added expenses of gasoline, commute time and wear and tear on their vehicles. Oh and still paying income taxes in the state they live in, just over the border in Illinois.

Sorry… We’re Closed: Since Walker Sworn-In, 19 Plant Closings and Mass Layoffs Have Cost Wisconsin 2,207 in Lost Jobs

According to Wisconsin law, businesses employing 50 or more persons in the State of Wisconsin must provide written notice 60 days before implementing a “business (plant) closing” or “mass layoff” in the state.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, 19 companies have given notice of plant closings or mass layoffs to 2,207 workers since Walker was sworn-in on January 3, 2011.

Meanwhile, Walker has taken a victory lap for “creating jobs” by paying an Illinois company $1.25 million to move their address a few miles north to Wisconsin. As discussed earlier, this doesn’t create jobs or tax revenue: All the Illinois employees will just have a slightly longer commute to work and because of Illinois-Wisconsin tax reciprocity agreements, will continue to pay taxes to Illinois.

These numbers of course don’t include the loss of potential jobs from a now canceled wind-farm development, Walker’s turning down of the high speed rail project and accompanying funds nor the departure of Talgo a maker of train cars that had already set up shop here in anticipation the now non-existent rail project.