Scott Walker: Cutting Govt Aid To The Poor Is Love

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During an interview on Pat Robertson’s CBN, Gov. Scott Walker talked about the severe cuts he made to government programs on Wisconsin’s poor and working poor families.

According to Walker, he said the cuts show how much he loves the people of his state. Feigning compassion, he overplays his coldly calculating semantics when forcing out the words, “I love ...I love ...I love them so much, I don’t want them to be indebted to government for the rest of their lives."

The entire segment including CBN's narrative is throw-up-in-mouth viewing. Watch if you must, but you were warned.

On Twitter:
Walker said cutting off govt benefits to the poor is love. Then why does he hate WEDC recipients? #WIunion #P2 #WIright #700Club

Video: Sen. Chris Larson Hosts Values Forum In Janesville

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Video Source

Facebook Discussion Here.

Rock County: Wisconsin Enjoyed Higher Standards For Too Many Decades

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Here is another gem from the documentary "As Goes Janesville." In the short segment below, you'll see Gov. Scott Walker taking part in a round table discussion with officials from the notorious economic development group, Rock County 5.0.

The action opens with Walker telling local officials about the major changes they can expect from his legislative budget proposals. The central players in this particular clip however are Beloit City Manager Larry Arft and Rock County Director of Economic Development James Otterstein as they identify the burdens of future economic development and suggest a remedy. The supporting cast are all the smiles and nods to what they had discussed.

The scene in the video is unedited from the original documentary. It needs little introduction or narration. However, it is easy to miss a single word or phrase that can dramatically change the context of what was said to that of what is heard. The original scene is followed by a short replay with subtitles and animation.



If you haven't seen the documentary "As Goes Janesville" by now, I urge you to get a copy and watch it - twice. It shows the mentality and wrongheaded plans of those working behind closed doors on economic development, not just in Rock County or Wisconsin, but in your own community as well.

Note: This posting is the independent perspective of its author and not affiliated in any way with the documentary or its creators.

Janesville Loses Its City Manager To California

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It's official. After a six month search and some discussion about his compensation package, the City of Simi Valley (California) city council unanimously approved hiring Janesville's city manager, Eric Levitt, during their Monday evening council meeting. He is expected to start May 16.

VC Star Excerpt:
Eric Levitt, the chief executive of Janesville, Wis., was hired Monday night as the city manager of Simi Valley at an annual base salary of $200,000.

Besides the beautiful year-around weather of sunny southern California, Simi also has one other feature that Levitt never had in Janesville - a mayor.

Here's a little tip-off to how badly Levitt apparently wanted out.

VC Star Excerpt:
Levitt’s contract has no set length. He will serve at the discretion of the council.

Wow. A contract without a time frame. But I can't blame him. With a mayor in Simi Valley setting the tone and steering the wheel, Levitt will have a huge undue burden lifted off his administrative shoulders. Particularly so with the ongoing poisonous political environment everyone has to deal with in Wisconsin since the election of Scott Walker. With those burdens gone, Levitt should be able to focus entirely on municipal utilities, contracts and administrative duties and serve his new employers extremely well. It took a boatload of confidence on Levitt's part to accept that contract.

As one of very few local bloggers completely independent of the Bliss establishment media apparatus, I'm comfortable saying I've always considered Levitt a level-headed and capable administrator. In that capacity, he will be missed.

But for good or bad, his departure won't change anything regarding the direction Janesville has been headed in for the past 90 years. As I've repeatedly stated over and over again, Janesville never had any true leadership, at least not the kind of leadership that speaks for the community and is held accountable directly to the people. Janesville of course has no mayor.

We can however once again bet that the political phantoms haunting the city of Janesville will maintain their status quo stranglehold with their overblown pursuit for the next city administrator and start this ridiculous cycle all over again.

So all-in-all, nothing has changed.

Why Are Red States With Earliest Tax Freedom Days So Unhappy?

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According to a University of Vermont analysis of tweets, the wine country towns of southern California rank among the happiest places to live in the United States. The study ranked the entire state of California as a top 13 happy state and Napa as the nation's happiest city. The university analyzed 10 million geotagged tweets gathered from 373 urban areas giving weight to happy terms and keywords most commonly used in tweets such as LOL, good, beautiful and, yes, happy.

The Vermont study also seems to confirm the idea that those with money tend to at least express that they're happy. The irony is, if I may call it that, is that many of those happy towns are also rich towns in deficit-prone blue states with late annual "Tax Freedom Days."

LA Weekly Blogs Excerpt:
Happiness within the US was found to correlate strongly with wealth, showing largest positive correlation with household income and strongest negative correlation with poverty amongst the census data sets used.

OK, now for the bad news. The saddest state they found is Louisiana, followed by Mississippi. Say what? That's right. The two saddest states in the union also boast of being ranked one/two in the country for the earliest tax freedom days according to the Tax Foundation.

It all seems so bizarre since many of these red state governors claim that a balanced budget and low taxes foster healthier economies and helps create jobs, prosperity and generally, an upbeat outlook.

But the university's tweeter study contradicts those mimes and confirm most of my suspicions about the race-to-the-bottom low-wage conservative establishment and their droning beatdown of the working poor and middle-class wage earners promoted mainly by republican governors. It's a dead-bang losing environment that practically feeds upon itself into a very sad and increasingly hostile constituency.

But to answer the contradiction, how could the two states with the earliest tax freedom days be listed at the top of sad, while deep blue "tax" states and their cities dominate the happy ranks? Our country's entire economic and social compact is built on acheiving success that is expressed from our own personal pursuit of happiness. So the question to the earliest tax freedom day red states with all of your low-wage conservative baggage is, why are any you even listed in the top ten of sad, let alone being ranked one and two?

SOURCE: University Of Vermont - The Geography of Happiness: Connecting Twitter sentiment and expression, demographics, and objective characteristics of place

Tax Freedom Day Comes Earliest For Moocher Red States

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Tax Freedom Day arrives the earliest for red state moochers and the latest for blue states. This should come as no surprise since up to half of the biggest mooching red state budgets (except Alaska) are paid for with federal tax dollars.

The ten states claiming the earliest tax freedom day are colored to match their vote from the 2012 presidential election.

March 29 Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) #1 worst moocher

March 29 Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) #2 worst moocher

April 2 Tennessee Gov. William Haslam (R) #6 worst moocher

April 3 South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) #21 worst moocher

April 3 New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) #7 worst moocher

April 4 South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R) #4 worst moocher

April 5 Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) #3 worst moocher

April 5 Alabama Gov. Robert J. Bentley (R) #20 worst moocher

April 6 Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) #14 worst moocher

April 6 Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell (R) NOT a moocher state

Some could make the argument that red state governors whittled their state budgets down enough to conversely balloon the portion paid by the federal government. That argument would hold merit except that red state governors are the first to preach about breaking the bonds of big government dependency and taking personal responsibility for oneself. That concept should extend to their respective state's fiscal draw on the federal government as well - but it obviously does not.

Secondly, I haven't included the tables showing the majority of red states getting back up to 160% for each dollar they pay into the federal government, while some blue states are lucky to get back half.

I'm not bashing the American fair share doctrine of helping out communities in need from those who can afford. The point is about the blatant hypocrisy celebrated by red states and their ideologues. They shout the loudest about enjoying early tax freedom days but never explain how easy it comes for them when somebody else is paying the tab.

Believe it or not:
Of the ten states most dependent on federal spending, all but New Mexico (7th) and New York which ranks 10th, voted for the Romney/Ryan presidential ticket. Of the ten states least dependent on federal dollars, all but two voted for President Barack Obama.

SOURCES:

2012 Presidential Electoral Map

Tax Freedom Day By State Map

Federal Aid To State Budget Map

Public Schools Win Big In Mixed Election Results

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Well, public schools got a nice reassuring boost in state-wide Wisconsin with the re-election of Tony Evers for State School Superintendent. On the other hand, Gov. Scott Walker's anti-education, anti-worker class war agenda was kept in place with the election of incumbent Supreme Court Justice Pat Roggensack.

Early on watching the Rock County vote tallies showing Fallone running 50/50 with Roggensack was a sure sign that Fallone wasn't going to overcome the heavy opposition from the state's GOP strongholds no matter what. This despite Rock County coming in a strong 70/30 for Evers.

Rock County generally leans strong democratic, but not landslide democratic just to make that distinction. Even with that forgiving quality, it doesn't make sense why Roggensack would pull to a draw here. Granted, she did not have the psychological baggage or the deeply partisan mean streak that Prosser carried, so perhaps it was that less damaging quality for Roggensack that made all the difference against Fallone. But the split support for Evers and Roggensack in Rock County doesn't make sense knowing the stakes are so high.

On the local scene for public schools in Janesville, the news was even better with the election of newcomer and teacher Cathy Meyers to the Janesville School Board. Meyers was also the top vote getter of the candidates.

School Board incumbent Karl Dommerhausen was also re-elected. Dommershausen, it should be noted, is somewhat of a pleasant surprise for local public school supporters. A self-described independent conservative who tends to favor republican causes, has recently made strong statements in opposition of voucher schools being advanced at the expense of public schools. That one clear message may have earned him his re-election in Janesville. Dommershausen and Meyers will join incumbent winner Kristin Hesselbacher to round out a strong defensive mix for the betterment of Janesville's public schools. Simply put, these three winning election is very welcome news.

The election news for the Janesville City Council was much less promising in my view. Two incumbents, Sam Liebert and Duwayne Severson will return to their respective seats on the council. They will be joined by newcomers Douglas Marklein, who by the way was the top council vote getter, and Brian Fitzgerald.

I wish I could say that at least one of the winning candidates will make the difference that is absolutely necessary to move Janesville into a 21st century economy. Unfortunately, I can't.

It is my view that the seven member Janesville City Council has fallen flat with mostly Forward Janesville/Rock County 5.0 collectivists splitting the decisions with tea party cutters, and its' only gotten' worse. The city has no leadership and no vision and it won't change anytime soon. It's off the rails and a real shame.

Former council member Yuri Rashkin made a last minute effort to return to the city council, but he ran as a write-in candidate and those campaigns, as valiant as they are, are unforgiving and extremely difficult to win. Rashkin came up short, assuming the 826 votes at 3.51% were all his.

SOURCE - Rock County Election Results

Post-election viewpoint from Yuri Rashkin.

Community Blames DNR For Having No Authority. Where Would Justice Roggensack Stand?

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* REVISED POSTING *

Residents of Richfield, Wisconsin are angry with the DNR after the agency approved of high-capacity wells for a nearby industrial-size dairy farm.

WBAY Excerpt:
Residents say the state Department of Natural Resources did an incomplete environmental analysis. They want the DNR to deny the well permit. But the agency says state laws limit its authority to consider the cumulative impact of wells on nearby waterways.

Why they are angry with the DNR is an easy guess, but they are blaming the wrong folks. Thinking the DNR has authority in the matter is the Wisconsin of days gone by.

Unfortunately for the state, Wisconsin voters ushered in single-party rule under Scott Walker. Part of their sweeping agenda not only included dumbing down the state's sacred environmental standards to loosely held federal benchmarks, but it also included the gutting of state DNR powers the moment Walker was installed into office. The recent Geogobic Taconite mining bill knocked down whatever standards guided the DNR that had remained.

Granted, Richfield's mega-farm well permit applications were submitted before the mining bill was signed into law, but no one can say voters weren't warned beforehand about the mining bill's effects on the state's resources. The DNR was for all practical purposes - defanged. In addition, you don't have to reside near or be involved with a mine to be impacted by the new law. But few seemed to listen...

The Daily Page Excerpt:
The bill requires the DNR to approve water withdrawals in any amount, from any location, regardless of whether the withdrawal will cause lakes, ponds, streams, rivers, wetlands or wells to go dry. It allows the company to fill lake beds and dump wastes into sensitive wetlands, shorelands and floodplains. It exempts the company from meeting local zoning approvals. It removes the contested case hearing before the permit decision is made, which deprives the public of their right to have the company's claims and DNR decisions reviewed while under oath.

So what is our recourse now that it is state law? The folks in Richfield could file suit in local courts and with compassionate judges and a great amount of luck, could stall the permits with additional appeals until it reaches the State Supreme Court. But the costs are high, the time is long and the odds of that happening are near zero. Even if it did happen by some strange quirk, how would Justice Roggensack approach a decision for a final ruling on this issue?

Daily Union Excerpt:
Roggensack said voters could expect her to continue to uphold the legislative intent of the state Senate and Assembly.

So Roggensack promises to uphold the intent of the legislature because politics is more important than justice. And what does the legislature say regarding those newly enacted state laws governing water wells and waterways?

RNR Excerpt:
"If the law is challenged and ends up in court, the judge needs to know it was the Legislature’s intent to allow adverse (environmental) impacts. That way, a judge can’t find fault if the environment is impacted." -- State Sen. Tom Tiffany, (R-Hazelhurst)

And why does THAT matter?

Elections have consequences. Please vote Ed Fallone For State Supreme Court.