Several of Wisconsin's Republican politicians were recently threatened on Craigslist. The FBI is among the law enforcement agencies investigating.
I hope they catch the asshole soon. This is completely unacceptable.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
Public Private Partnership to Provide Patronage Positions?
Details of Gov. Walker's plan to replace the Dept. of Commerce with a publicly-financed private corporation were released on Thursday.
Employees of the new entity will not be state workers with civil service protections. They will have the option of participating in the Wisconsin Retirement System. Hiring and salary decisions will be made by a Board appointed by Gov. Walker himself.
Rep. Robin Vos, co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, spoke of the need to bring in the "very best people" and get rid of those who "need to find employment elsewhere." His choice of words reminded me of a Country Club membership committee. The need for "the best" at the new agency could certainly be used to justify inflated upper management salaries.
From Channel 3000:
Employment levels will be similar, although most of the Department's regulatory functions will be either eliminated or shifted to other agencies. Hiring decisions will bypass civil service rules. Taxpayers will be paying a similar number of people to do significantly less work. It sounds like the new entity exists largely to create high-paying patronage jobs for the well-connected. Crony capitalism (and your tax dollars) at work.
Employees of the new entity will not be state workers with civil service protections. They will have the option of participating in the Wisconsin Retirement System. Hiring and salary decisions will be made by a Board appointed by Gov. Walker himself.
Rep. Robin Vos, co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, spoke of the need to bring in the "very best people" and get rid of those who "need to find employment elsewhere." His choice of words reminded me of a Country Club membership committee. The need for "the best" at the new agency could certainly be used to justify inflated upper management salaries.
From Channel 3000:
It's not immediately clear how many private employees there would be at the new hybrid agency. Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie said last week that they didn't anticipate overall employment levels to differ much from where they are now.
Employment levels will be similar, although most of the Department's regulatory functions will be either eliminated or shifted to other agencies. Hiring decisions will bypass civil service rules. Taxpayers will be paying a similar number of people to do significantly less work. It sounds like the new entity exists largely to create high-paying patronage jobs for the well-connected. Crony capitalism (and your tax dollars) at work.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Pathetic Loser Charged With New Sex Crime
Dustin Radke, who spent time in prison for trying to dig up a corpse with sexual intent, allegedly had sex with a 14-year-old just a couple months after getting out of prison for his previous sex crime.
If someone is so screwed up that they can't interact with a living adult, then they should spend some money on a high-end sex doll and leave other people (and their mortal remains) alone.
If there was ever a good candidate for castration, it's this asshole.
If someone is so screwed up that they can't interact with a living adult, then they should spend some money on a high-end sex doll and leave other people (and their mortal remains) alone.
If there was ever a good candidate for castration, it's this asshole.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
2010 Southern Wisconsin Drunk of the Year
For most of 2010, I thought I would be giving the nod to DeForest's David Dull. However, Reedsburg's Michael Clevenger pulled off a victory on the last day of the year (well before midnight).
Clevenger started hitting the vodka at 8:00 in the morning. By 2:00 in the afternoon, he was on the road, driving erratically, with two open Smirnoff bottles in the car with him. He resisted arrest and urged the deputy to tase him. The taser malfunctioned (making me wonder if he was wearing some kind of insulating vest, since he himself suggested the taser).
This is Clevenger's 10th offense in a 13-year, three-county span. He'll have plenty of time to dry out in prison.
Clevenger started hitting the vodka at 8:00 in the morning. By 2:00 in the afternoon, he was on the road, driving erratically, with two open Smirnoff bottles in the car with him. He resisted arrest and urged the deputy to tase him. The taser malfunctioned (making me wonder if he was wearing some kind of insulating vest, since he himself suggested the taser).
This is Clevenger's 10th offense in a 13-year, three-county span. He'll have plenty of time to dry out in prison.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Scott Walker - Wisconsin's Boris Yeltsin
When Boris Yeltsin became Russia's President two decades ago, Russians expected him to lead them into an era of prosperity and freedom. They wanted to live like the rest of Europe. They were tired of dour communism and standing in line for bread.
Russia's transition to capitalism, however, was extremely painful -- thanks in large part to Yeltsin's corrupt cronyism. He sold off state-owned companies for kopeks on the ruble to his friends and supporters. This led to the rise of a class of extremely rich industrialists called oligarchs (a word formerly used to describe the members of the old Soviet Politburo). They were very much like the robber barons of 19th-century America.
The cost of living skyrocketed and jobs disappeared. People couldn't afford basic necessities like food and fuel. Soldiers actually sold their guns because the government didn't have the money to pay their salaries.
Scott Walker has a similar liking for crony capitalism. He wants to privatize many government functions. He showed a similar penchant as Milwaukee County Executive, replacing County-employed janitors and security guards with contractors, with unpleasant results.
Now he proposes to dismantle the Department of Commerce and give some of its functions to a new private corporation that will be funded with taxpayer money.
I believe this is Walker's jobs plan. In GOP Bizarro World, government jobs are not real jobs. Therefore, eliminating one full-time, family supporting job and giving the money to a for-profit company who outsources the work to two part-time minimum wage workers counts as creating two jobs.
Of course, the company's CEO and shareholders will skim off much of the money. They may even live out of state, which will remove money from Wisconsin's economy and cause a further contraction of revenues and a larger budget hole. Certainly Dane County's economy will suffer with the loss of those jobs. More restaurants and stores will close, and more homes will go into foreclosure.
I expect that Scott Walker will be shameless in his quest to privatize Wisconsin's public assets. Look forward to more logging and mining on state land. That will create some decent-paying jobs for a few years, but residents will have to live with the blighted landscape for decades afterward. There is already a move afoot to begin mining and processing sand in Chippewa County for hydraulic fracturing natural gas extraction. With our new Governor's laissez-faire attitude toward business regulations, expect little environmental oversight.
Expect to see private security firms (like the Walker-favored Wackenhut) taking over some law enforcement duties. I suspect the Capitol police will be the first on the chopping block. In time, I think some State Highway Patrol and Dept. of Corrections jobs may also be outsourced.
Expect a push to expand school vouchers (this is already being talked about). Republican legislators talk about helping children in failing schools, but this policy is really about busting teachers' unions and subsidizing white flight from urban schools, leaving underfunded public schools with a high percentage of at-risk students. Those kids will grow up to be an undereducated cheap labor force for Wisconsin's new oligarchs.
Russia's transition to capitalism, however, was extremely painful -- thanks in large part to Yeltsin's corrupt cronyism. He sold off state-owned companies for kopeks on the ruble to his friends and supporters. This led to the rise of a class of extremely rich industrialists called oligarchs (a word formerly used to describe the members of the old Soviet Politburo). They were very much like the robber barons of 19th-century America.
The cost of living skyrocketed and jobs disappeared. People couldn't afford basic necessities like food and fuel. Soldiers actually sold their guns because the government didn't have the money to pay their salaries.
Scott Walker has a similar liking for crony capitalism. He wants to privatize many government functions. He showed a similar penchant as Milwaukee County Executive, replacing County-employed janitors and security guards with contractors, with unpleasant results.
Now he proposes to dismantle the Department of Commerce and give some of its functions to a new private corporation that will be funded with taxpayer money.
I believe this is Walker's jobs plan. In GOP Bizarro World, government jobs are not real jobs. Therefore, eliminating one full-time, family supporting job and giving the money to a for-profit company who outsources the work to two part-time minimum wage workers counts as creating two jobs.
Of course, the company's CEO and shareholders will skim off much of the money. They may even live out of state, which will remove money from Wisconsin's economy and cause a further contraction of revenues and a larger budget hole. Certainly Dane County's economy will suffer with the loss of those jobs. More restaurants and stores will close, and more homes will go into foreclosure.
I expect that Scott Walker will be shameless in his quest to privatize Wisconsin's public assets. Look forward to more logging and mining on state land. That will create some decent-paying jobs for a few years, but residents will have to live with the blighted landscape for decades afterward. There is already a move afoot to begin mining and processing sand in Chippewa County for hydraulic fracturing natural gas extraction. With our new Governor's laissez-faire attitude toward business regulations, expect little environmental oversight.
Expect to see private security firms (like the Walker-favored Wackenhut) taking over some law enforcement duties. I suspect the Capitol police will be the first on the chopping block. In time, I think some State Highway Patrol and Dept. of Corrections jobs may also be outsourced.
Expect a push to expand school vouchers (this is already being talked about). Republican legislators talk about helping children in failing schools, but this policy is really about busting teachers' unions and subsidizing white flight from urban schools, leaving underfunded public schools with a high percentage of at-risk students. Those kids will grow up to be an undereducated cheap labor force for Wisconsin's new oligarchs.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Meet the Spartans
Wow. Michigan State's football team was an embarrassment to the Big Ten today. Let's hope the Badgers and Buckeyes can redeem the conference's honor.
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