Journal Sentinel endorses Scott Walker, acknowledges Barrett has better ideas

Ask anyone in Wisconsin what the most important issue is right now and odds are good the answer will be “jobs.” Yet the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel endorses Scott Walker for governor while saying;

“Barrett['s]… jobs and deficit proposals are far more detailed than Walker’s and should be considered even if he’s not elected.”

So…why is Walker getting the nod?

The endorsement begins with Walker’s ridiculous promise to create 250,000 jobs during his first term as governor, reducing the unemployment rate to 0.03%. Despite Walker’s inability to bring any jobs to Milwaukee County during his tenure as county executive,  the paper still leads their endorsement with this dubious and unsubstantiated claim, with no attempt to follow up on the logistics of creating a quarter-million jobs.

Returning to the praise for Barrett’s deficit reduction plan, Scott Walker has pledged to reopen billions of dollars in tax loopholes, on top of the state’s projected $2.7 billion deficit. Without ever stating what programs will be cut, Scott Walker would dig Wisconsin’s budget hole deeper.

Capper and Cory have more on the Journal Sentinel’s strange endorsement criteria. At least the paper didn’t endorse RoJo.

Ron Johnson preparing dirty, misleading Senate campaign

Republican US Senate hopeful Ron Johnson, the latest entrant into the GOP primary race is preparing a dirty campaign of misleading personal attacks, judging by the hiring of Darrin Schmitz. Schmitz is responsible for what may be the only Wisconsin campaign ad still causing controversy two years after airing — the Gableman campaign’s attack on Louis Butler, called a purposeful distortion by the Journal-Sentinel.

This purposeful distortion was on display in April at the Madison Tea Party, straight from Ron Johnson himself. Johnson ranted about lost freedom and not being covered by the mainstream media, while freely speaking and acknowledging friendly members of the mainstream media in the audience.

The tea party “movement” has never been very coherent or concerned with the truth. Now that they have their own candidate we can expect constant attacks on the Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution’s knowledge of the Constitution, along with (of course) his disregard for it.

On the plus side, Feingold will get the opportunity to rerun the classic 1992 “mudslinging” ad this year (which I unfortunately cannot locate online), but with his old primary opponents replaced with present day GOP foes Terrence Wall and Ron Johnson.

Wall has run a dirty campaign of falsehoods from the start, and Leinenkugel followed suit. Ron Johnson’s Schmitz hire proves him shameless. Along with Dave Westlake they are going to say anything, truth-be-damned, to attack Feingold, all while simultaneously beating the hell out of each other. It’s going to be a long summer.

Healthy Youth Act Detractors Distort the Truth, Putting Young People at Risk

The Journal-Sentinel published a letter about AB 458, the Healthy Youth Act, full of distortions and falsehoods. When your agenda is ignorance, why not use ignorance to promote your agenda?

The writers claim “schools will not be allowed to offer abstinence-centered education to students.”

Wrong. Schools will not be allowed to teach only abstinence in human growth and development classes. Students will still learn that abstinence is the only foolproof way to prevent sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy.

The letter makes the case that the rate of sexually transmitted infections has increased in the six years since state tax dollars began funding the Family Planning Waiver, thus contraceptive education has failed.

“The Family Planning Waiver Program (FPWP) provides family planning services and supplies for women age 15 through 44 who are at or below 185% of the federal poverty level.”

I am unable to locate the number of participants in the program, but by definition it does not apply to the entire state. The authors project a narrowly focused program to declare contraceptive education an absolute failure for the entire state of Wisconsin. This type of misrepresentation is appalling, but in the quest to keep Wisconsin’s students ignorant of  safer-sex practices, truth be damned!

Most alarming is the glaringly false statistics used.

“Condoms have been known to fail at least 10% to 30% of the time in preventing pregnancy”

Really? These numbers say otherwise. Of course a condom works best when a person is educated on proper use. If the writers had their way, their numbers could become accurate.

The Healthy Youth Act acknowledges that abstinence-only education is not realistic or safe. The arguments against it are based on falsehoods and a general attitude of blissful ignorance. The Assembly has already passed the bill. For the sake of Wisconsin’s young people, the Senate must now do the same.

Taxes Aren’t Killing Wisconsin, but Brett Davis is Trying

Not that “Wisconsin-taxes-are-too-high-and-killing-business” wasn’t a popular talking point from the right before the Pew Center Report, but its all over now. A Journal-Sentinel blog (always a beacon of intelligent thought) laments our tax burden and fleeing businesses. Perhaps the author missed Republic Airlines relocating 800 jobs to Milwaukee?

Wisconsin has some budgetary problems, no doubt, and the fed money isn’t going to be there next time around. Thankfully we’ve got legislators with no shortage of brilliant ideas.

Lieutenant Governor candidate Brett Davis wants the DOT to stop printing maps for free distribution at WI visitor centers. Democurmudgeon points out that telling tourists to “get lost” might not be the best idea for the state.

Davis has another bad idea to offer the state, zero-based budgeting. Davis (and Leah Vukmir, current rep and aspiring senator) wants state agencies to justify each component of their budget, instead of “cost-to-continue” being assumed each budget cycle.

Jimmy Carter implemented a version of zero-based budgeting. The result was excessive amounts of administrative time wasted justifying each line in a budget, much of which couldn’t be removed (entitlements, etc). Ronald Reagan ended the practice shortly after taking office.

Davis is 0-2 for good ideas solving Wisconsin’s budget problems. Anyone care to place a bet on the Lt. Gov race?

Feingold: He’s Got a Lotta Money

In his campaign chest, that is. The Journal-Sentinel discussed Russ Feingold’s campaign finances in an article yesterday, noting the three-term Democrat is raising and spending money at a furious pace.

In typical, classy Feingold fashion the campaign is building grassroots support through small donors. One must spend money to make money, collecting small donations is expensive, but ensures a clean election and legislative process.

The article briefly comments on Republican assertions of Feingold’s heavy fundraising being due to concerns over reelection prospects, an expected political jab. The attacks continue from likely Feingold opponent Terrence Wall;

“Liberals like Russ Feingold continue to support spending that’s going to place this country in financial trouble,” said Wall, who argues that there are too many lawyers and career politicians in Washington.”

To give the JS credit, the next paragraph acknowledges Feingold’s budget-reducing Control Spending Act, aimed at reducing wasteful federal spending. Wall conveniently ignores the fact so he doesn’t have to stray from the usual “liberals-taxing-and-spending” GOP rhetoric.

Republican Party of Wisconsin stuntman Mark Jefferson characterizes Feingold as an “opportunistic politician who tries to cast himself as a maverick but sides with his party on a majority of votes.” This from the executive director of a political party, which by definition organizes candidates and legislators for strength in numbers to advance an agenda.

I bet Jefferson has never disparaged Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner for siding with his party on 90.3% of House votes. Compare that to Feingold’s 76.7%. No judgment is passed on the basis of a legislator voting with their party, only on Jefferson’s hypocrisy and sheer stupidity selecting the member of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation who votes with their party the least.

That’s the RPW for you… Go get ‘em Russ.

Republican Spammers on Twitter: CivicForumPAC and Scott Walker, Busted

The Twitter account of Scott Walker’s campaign was suspended Monday. The Walker campaign alleges the suspension was due to political opponents reporting the account as spam, and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel lends that dubious statement credence by printing it. What the JS does not mention is the Walker campaign may have been spamming by following, un-following and re-following Twitter users in an attempt to gain followers for Walker’s account. According to user comments making the rounds on blogs and the Journal-Sentinel story, a Google cache proved the latter allegations true.

No matter why Walker was banned, it is a fact the right-wing is spamming in this fashion with other Twitter accounts.

Enter political action committee Civic Forum (CivicForumPAC on Twitter), a PAC registered in Virginia (with only two donations to its name, one by its treasurer, but thats fodder for another post). Civic Forum’s stated goal is;

“Investing in social media communication technology to help elect Republican candidates across the nation in 2010″

After I tagged #wisgop in a tweet about a derogatory post regarding of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, CivicForumPAC began following me. I wondered why the group would follow me after insulting their party, and then ignored them. Today, one week later, I received another email saying “CivicForum PAC is now following you on Twitter.”

I was followed, un-followed and re-followed, in the same fashion that alledgedly got Walker’s account suspended. Civic Forum is using “social media communication technology” to spam anyone displaying an interest in politics with tweets of “Obamanomics failed to account for the cost of the Obamalympic$ folly” and the like.

I don’t like spam, Civic Forum PAC or the Republican Party. I don’t like Scott Walker’s staff making allegations that unnamed “political opponents” were behind the suspension of his account. I don’t like the Journal-Sentinel printing the allegations without mentioning the alternate (likely accurate) scenario.

Walker’s campaign has been silent about the suspension ever since. That silence is indicting Mr. Walker. I would advise you and Civic Forum both to mind your internet manners. No one likes (or votes for) a spammer.