[poochee]

Scott Walker Looks To Stay Away From Criminal Investigation Ahead Of Recall Election
SCOTT BAUER 01/ 6/12 05:07 PM ET Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. — With salacious felony child enticement and embezzlement charges swirling around former close associates, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is doing his best to stay above the fray and hope an ongoing criminal investigation doesn't hit any closer to home.

The charges come less than two weeks before organizers of an effort to recall Walker from office plan to turn in more than 500,000 signatures to trigger the election.

Walker's then-chief of staff did alert investigators in 2009 to concerns about missing money tied to an annual veterans recognition event. But Walker said he had no idea aide Tim Russell also was allegedly stealing. Russell's longtime domestic partner, Brian Pierick, also was charged with felony child enticement after phones and computers seized showed he was trying to lure a 17-year-old into his van.

One of the user names prosecutors said either Russell or Pierick used to download suspected child pornography was "Walker04."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...l?ref=politics

[poochee]

Posted on Monday, March 28, 2011
Modified Monday, March 28, 2011
States broke? Maybe they cut taxes too much
Tony Pugh

WASHINGTON — In his new budget proposal, Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich calls for extending a generous 21 percent cut in state income taxes. The measure was originally part of a sweeping 2005 tax overhaul that abolished the state corporate income tax and phased out a business property tax.

The tax cuts were supposed to stimulate Ohio's economy and create jobs. But that never happened once the economy tanked. Instead, the changes ended up costing Ohio more than $2 billion a year in lost tax revenue; money that would go a long way toward closing the state's $8 billion budget gap for fiscal year 2012.

Sounds familiar.

Schiller's lament is by no means unique. Across the country, taxpayers jarred by cuts to government jobs and services are reassessing the risks and costs of a variety of tax reductions, exemptions and credits, and the ideology that drives them. States cut taxes in hopes of spurring economic growth, but in state after state, it hasn't worked.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/03/2...#storylink=cpy

[poochee]

Miss. judge blocks release of convicts granted pardons, clemency by outgoing governor
By Associated Press, Published: January 11
Associated Press writer Jeff Amy contributed to this report.

Circuit Judge Tomie Green issued an injunction late Wednesday at the request of Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood.

Hood said he believes Barbour might’ve violated the state constitution by pardoning some inmates who failed to give sufficient public notice that they were seeking to have their records cleared.

Barbour said in a statement Wednesday, a day after leaving office, that he believes people have misunderstood why he gave reprieves to more than 200 inmates. Most received full pardons, while others received suspended sentences because of medical conditions. Barbour said 189 of the inmates had already completed their incarceration.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...y.html?hpid=z6

[poochee]

Scott Walker Recall Effort: Dems Searching For Opponent Against Wisconsin Governor
By SCOTT BAUER 01/16/12 01:04 PM ET Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. -- Supporters of a push to oust Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker from office are prepared to declare victory in their effort to force the Republican into a recall election. But a problem looms for Democrats: They still don't know who would run against him.

Recall organizers say they have gathered far more than the 540,208 signatures required to force the election against both Walker and GOP Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, and will submit their petitions Tuesday.

Democrats and union leaders insist they're not concerned about not having someone actively running against Walker and trying to match his fundraising. In fact, they say it was part of their strategy.

"It forced Walker and his minions to run on their record and issues rather than to run against an announced Democratic candidate," said Marty Beil, president of the Wisconsin State Employees Union, the largest union of state workers. "That was part of the rationale through the whole recall petition collection process."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1208942.html

[poochee]

Wisconsin Voter ID Law: Judge To Hear Challenge This Week
First Posted: 1/16/12 06:54 PM ET Updated: 1/16/12 07:25 PM ET
By Brendan O'Brien
(Editing by James B. Kelleher and Ellen Wulfhorst)

Lawyers for The League of Women Voters, which says the measure violates the state constitution by disenfranchising eligible voters, present oral arguments against the law in a Dane County Circuit Court on Thursday.

The voter ID measure was part of a raft of legislation backed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker that triggered mass protests in Madison last winter and prompted a fierce political backlash from Democrats and union supporters.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1209333.html

[poochee]

Over a million signatures filed to force recall of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker
Posted by Rachel Weiner at 02:51 PM ET, 01/17/2012

Democrats and their allies in organized labor say they delivered over a million recall petition signatures against Gov. Scott Walker (R) Tuesday, far more than the 540,208 needed to spark a recall election.

Democrats also filed 845,000 signatures to trigger a recall against Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch (R) and enough to recall four Republican state senators, according to party chairman Mike Tate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...T55P_blog.html

[poochee]

January 18th, 2012
11:54 AM ET
Democrat jumps into Wisconsin governors race
Posted by
CNN's Kevin Liptak

Kathleen Falk, a former Dane County executive who ran for governor in 2002, said she would challenge Walker in a recall election. On Tuesday the Wisconsin Democratic Party declared they collected more than a million signatures to recall Walker, who gained national attention when he, along with Republican legislators, pushed legislation restricting state workers' collective bargaining rights.

Falk is the second Democrat to jump into the race. Tim Cullen, a Democratic state senator, published a Facebook page promoting his candidacy. Cullen promises to "draw from experience in the public and private sectors to unite Wisconsin so that we may collectively solve the problems and challenges standing in the path of Lady Forward."

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...overnors-race/

[poochee]

Elizabeth Warren Money Bomb Raises $1 Million In One Day
First Posted: 1/19/12 10:16 PM ET Updated: 1/19/12 10:17 PM ET

The Harvard law professor and Democrat, who is running for the Massachusetts senate seat currently held by Republican Scott Brown, raised more than $1 million on Thursday alone in a coordinated "money bomb," the timing of which had special significance.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1217750.html

[poochee]

Top Senate Dems pitch for Elizabeth Warren's senatorial campaign
By Josh Lederman - 01/19/12 05:31 PM ET

Top Democratic leaders in the Senate are appealing to their supporters to help former Obama administration official Elizabeth Warren take down GOP Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, both penned letters on Thursday asking supporters to donate to Warren’s campaign.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/...izabeth-warren

[poochee]

Amanda Terkel
Scott Walker's Fundraising Pitch: 'Big Labor Bosses' Are Trying To 'Barge And Bully' Into Wisconsin
You betcha!
Posted: 1/20/12 12:44 PM ET

WASHINGTON -- "Big Union-sponsored mercenaries." "Bare-knuckle union attacks." "Strong-arm tactics."

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's (R) most recent fundraising letter to solicit donations for a potential recall election minces no words in going after his Democratic and union opponents. The four-page letter uses a variation of "Big Labor Bosses" 14 times. It also calls out other classic bogeymen for the right: the "Moveon.org Radicals," "Liberal Billionaire George Soros' attack organizations," "President Obama's Political Machine" and the "Ultra Left-Wing Elites from Hollywood and Manhattan."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1216538.html

[poochee]

Amanda Terkel
Democratic Operative's Cat Slaughtered, 'Liberal' Painted On Corpse
So civilized.
First Posted: 01/23/2012 2:44 pm Updated: 01/23/2012 5:25 pm

WASHINGTON -- The race for the Arkansas' third congressional district took a gruesome turn on Sunday, when the campaign manager for Democratic challenger Ken Aden came home and found his cat slaughtered with the word "liberal" painted on the corpse.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1224095.html

[poochee]

Trymaine Lee
Tea Party Groups In Tennessee Demand Textbooks Overlook U.S. Founder's Slave-Owning History
First Posted: 01/23/2012 4:08 pm Updated: 01/23/2012 5:26 pm

A little more than a year after the conservative-led state board of education in Texas approved massive changes to its school textbooks to put slavery in a more positive light, a group of Tea Party activists in Tennessee has renewed its push to whitewash school textbooks. The group is seeking to remove references to slavery and mentions of the country's founders being slave owners.

According to reports, Hal Rounds, the Fayette County attorney and spokesman for the group, said during a recent news conference that there has been "an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1224157.html

[Wino]

What's next?? Wounded Knee never happened?? Manifest Destiny is a myth?? Teach ignorance in schools??? A type of educational Luddism.

[poochee]

Originally Posted by Wino

What's next?? Wounded Knee never happened?? Manifest Destiny is a myth?? Teach ignorance in schools??? A type of educational Luddism.

They are nuts!

[Wino]

Originally Posted by poochee

They are nuts!

To make matters worse I get a double whammy of shame - I have a hereditary connection to both Tennessee (Dad) and Texas (Mom) - probably explains a lot.