Vegan My Way

On June 14th, 2012 when an activist was arrested for having a conversation outside a press room. The press room is in the Capitol on the Second floor which houses the members of the “professional press” or Wisconsin Capitol Correspondents Association. The problem is that the hallway in which the activist was talking to another activist is a public hallway. The press didn’t like the conversation the two were having outside their door so they called the police who later arrested the man; for talking in a public hallway. Police, when later asked for comment simply stated that they received a complaint and that they are pursuing every complaint and letting the courts figure it out.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker beat back a recall challenge Tuesday, winning the right to finish his term with nearly 80% of precincts reporting, Walker had 55% of the vote, compared with 44% for Barrett.

The rising Republican star is the first governor in U.S. history to survive a recall attempt. He defeated Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and the union leaders who rallied for months against his agenda.

The opinion polls over recent weeks show Walker with a narrow but consistent lead over Barrett.

As for Walker’s recall, an army of volunteers gathered 900,000 verified signatures to initiate the process. Unions spent $4 million on its failed contender in the Democratic primary, Kathleen Falk, and then millions more on the general election.

For his part, Walker has pulled in tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions from wealthy out-of-state donors to finance his campaign. And fought back, arguing that he had made the “tough choices” needed to balance the state’s budget and free school districts from excessive costs.

But how ($), why ($)?

justinspoliticalcorner:

Scott Walker Mistakenly Admits He is Under Investigation

After the mistaken admission that he is under investigation Scott Walker has spent $160,000 of campaign money on his criminal defense attorneys in the past six weeks alone.

Walker’s campaign released a statement from the first-term Republican saying he would use the defense fund to pay his two criminal defense lawyers “to review documents and assist me in cooperating” with the secret probe.

“The only way you can set that up is if you are under investigation or being prosecuted,” said Michael Maistelman, an election lawyer who is representing former Walker aide Tim Russell in the John Doe investigation. “One can only draw the conclusion that either one of those two things is happening.”

But Walker spokeswoman Ciara Matthews said late Friday that the fund was set up “under the guidance of the GAB.”

“We reiterate that Gov. Walker has been told that he is not a target of this investigation,” Matthews said.

State law also says Walker can transfer funds from his state campaign to the legal defense fund with the contributor’s consent.

(via truth-has-a-liberal-bias)

1. Repeal of Equal Pay for Women

In April, Scott Walker signed SB 202, which effectively repealed an equal pay law that has protected women from pay discrimination since 2009.

2. Anti-Abortion Laws

Speaking of the war on women, three days after repealing the equal pay law, Scott Walker signed three anti-abortion bills into law.

3. Relationship with Koch Brothers

Working closely with Koch funded group Americans for Prosperity, Walker has gutted Wisconsin’s labor unions, killing collective bargaining, and supporting bills that kill environmental legislation. The Kochs have poured millions of dollars into Wisconsin to keep Walker from being recalled.

4. Wisconsin’s Terrible Jobs Record

Dead last. That defines Walker’s record on jobs. In his second year as Governor, Wisconsin lost over 20,000 jobs. That’s way worse than the second worst jobs record in the nation.

5. Union Busting

Walker signed a bill in March 2011 that ended most union rights in the state of Wisconsin, including the right to collectively bargain for pay and benefits. Under the law, police, firefighters, teachers, nurses, and many other public employees will no longer get to negotiate their pay. In a damning caught on tape moment, Walker described to big campaign donor Diane Hendricks how he was going to turn Wisconsin into a ‘right to work for less’ state.

“Well, we’re going to start in a couple weeks with our budget adjustment bill. The first step is we’re going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions, because you use divide and conquer.”

6. Killed High Speed Rail Funding

Upon winning election in 2010, Scott Walker vowed to kill high speed rail funding. And he did exactly that. Walker gave back over $800 million in federal assistance to build a high-speed train between Milwaukee and Madison, which cost the people of Wisconsin thousands of jobs.

7. Signed the Grover Norquist Taxpayer Protection Pledge

Grover Norquist has this anti-tax pledge that he gets Republicans to sign, forcing them to promise that they won’t raise taxes under any circumstance, even if the fiscal health of the nation is at stake. Scott Walker signed it too,  signing tax cuts into law that benefit corporations and the wealthy while cutting everything from health care to education.

8. Chris Christie Backs Him

Since Chris Christie (bully-in-chief of New Jersey) has endorsed Scott Walker and supports everything he has done to the people of Wisconsin.

9. Voter Suppression Laws

Wisconsin’s new GOP backed voter suppression laws won’t be in effect during this recall. A judge made sure of that. But the voter ID law will require every person of voting age in Wisconsin to show an ID at the polls before proceeding to vote.

10. Over Half Of Campaign Cash Is From Out-Of-State Sources

Scott Walker has taken in millions of dollars from the Koch brothers and Americans for Prosperity among other outside sources. Because of this out-of-state money and a law that gives a recalled governor the ability to take in unlimited amounts of cash to defeat their opponent and limits the money raising ability of the opponent, Walker has been able to raise and spend $21 million to the Democrat’s $2 million as of May 2012. Two-thirds of Walker’s campaign cash has come from donors outside of Wisconsin.

11. Mitt Romney Endorses Him

Mitt Romney supports Scott Walker. Romney has called for a budget that gut Medicare, Social Security, veteran’s care, food stamps, Medicaid, education, infrastructure and just about any and every program that benefits American citizens.

12. Veterans Funds Scandal

During his time as Milwaukee County Executive and his run for the governorship, Scott Walker’s aides were stealing money out of a Veterans fund that is supposed to be used to help the families of fallen soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan and Iraq and to help care for wounded vets and their families. Tens of thousands of dollars were stolen and used for personal expenses such as trips to Hawaii.

13. Gutted Public Education Funding To Pay 

Scott Walker slashed aid to public schools by almost $800 million to fund his tax cuts for the rich and corporations. It was second biggest cut to education in the country. Money is so tight that many programs such as art and music have had to be scrapped to save cash. That significantly harms the overall education of our kids.

14. War Against The Environment

Wisconsin has always been a caretaker of the environment. During his time as Governor, Walker’s plan to eliminate the recycling program would have cost Wisconsin 97,000 jobs and over $5.4 billion in economic activity. He cost the state thousands of jobs by being hostile towards wind energy companies who wanted to bring wind power to Wisconsin. He tried to let corporations and developers destroy wetlands by attempting to weaken regulations that protect the fragile and extremely important environment. He also made an attempt to weaken anti-pollution rules and is still lax on punishing those who violate pollution laws.

15. Opposes Health Care

Walker has voiced his opposition to the Affordable Care Act, which prevents insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions, allows kids to stay on their parent’s insurance until the age of 26, and covers 30 million Americans who don’t have insurance.
As Governor, Walker has eliminated funding for women’s health programs that provide preventive care for over 50,000 women a year. That means less money for things like breast cancer screenings and other services. Walker has also proposed kicking 65,000 people, including nearly 30,000 children, off of BadgerCare, a popular program paid for by Medicaid and created by a former Republican governor.

16. Supports Arizona Immigration Law

“I am disappointed by the federal judge’s ruling to block Arizona’s right to enforce the rule of law without interference from the federal government. As governor, I will sign similar legislation to the Arizona Law to ensure the taxpayers of Wisconsin are not paying for benefits like Badger Care and in state college tuition for people who are here illegally.” ~Scott Walker

17. Tax Breaks For The Rich And Corporations

While demanding sacrifices from the workers of Wisconsin, Walker was busy handing tax breaks to the rich and corporations.

18. Relationship With ALEC

Scott Walker was an active member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) when he was a Wisconsin state legislator in the years from 1993-2002, even listing his ALEC membership in his Wisconsin Blue Book profile.