Fingers crossed that the US Supreme Court - - files, here - - is about to begin the restoration of fair elections in Wisconsin.
Oct. 3rd is the date on which Wisconsin Republicans' secretly-crafted, taxpayer-subsidized and intentionally-discriminatory legislative district mapping and redistricting will undergo scrutiny before the nation's highest court.
And as great as it is that plaintiffs' lawyers constructed a case against that redistricting plan that won at a lower federal level, and now commands a review at the highest level - - and, yes, I know this is a conservative court, but as learned with its affirmation of the legality of Obamacare, don't get bogged down now trying to predict or worry about a Supreme Court outcome - - there is a part of this scandalous chapter in Wisconsin history that freshly irks me now:
That Wisconsin taxpayers, already fleeced more than once by the GOP gerrymander machine, have to again pay the public officials who keep defending what they intentionally set into motion for self-serving partisan purposes.
* Don't forget that Republican legislators spent $400,000 of taxpayer dollars on private lawyers who put together the plan behind closed doors to keep Republicans in power that has enabled years of horrible governance.
* Not to mention that Walker went a step further by rewarding one of those redistricting lawyers with a district court judgeship appointment.
* And on Oct. 3rd, Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, again on the taxpayers' dime, will again argue that the plan was legal:
Now you could say that this is mere partisanship as American as apple pie, or that Schimel is just doing his job as the state's senior lawyer, or he's only doing Walker's bidding as would any good Republican bellhop, but I'd love to see an accounting of the publicly-paid staff time, and consultant or adviser time, that Schimel has spent on this case and now on the appeal because we know he goes the last mile for Walker and the right when their agendas are on the line:
Question. What kind of government funds secretly-drawn legislation, keeps burning through public dollars to try and legitimize it while also forcing taxpayers to fight other publicly-subsidized policy abuses by drawing down their personal accounts, too?
Answer: As exposed via Walker's 'chamber of commerce mentality"-driven DNR, a government without a moral center, as I have been arguing from the earliest weeks of the Walker era:
Oct. 3rd is the date on which Wisconsin Republicans' secretly-crafted, taxpayer-subsidized and intentionally-discriminatory legislative district mapping and redistricting will undergo scrutiny before the nation's highest court.
And as great as it is that plaintiffs' lawyers constructed a case against that redistricting plan that won at a lower federal level, and now commands a review at the highest level - - and, yes, I know this is a conservative court, but as learned with its affirmation of the legality of Obamacare, don't get bogged down now trying to predict or worry about a Supreme Court outcome - - there is a part of this scandalous chapter in Wisconsin history that freshly irks me now:
That Wisconsin taxpayers, already fleeced more than once by the GOP gerrymander machine, have to again pay the public officials who keep defending what they intentionally set into motion for self-serving partisan purposes.
* Don't forget that Republican legislators spent $400,000 of taxpayer dollars on private lawyers who put together the plan behind closed doors to keep Republicans in power that has enabled years of horrible governance.
* Not to mention that Walker went a step further by rewarding one of those redistricting lawyers with a district court judgeship appointment.
* And on Oct. 3rd, Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, again on the taxpayers' dime, will again argue that the plan was legal:
Attorney General Brad Schimel submitted the state’s legal arguments after he notified the court last month that he was appealing the ruling. The arguments mirror those Schimel made in the losing case before a three-judge federal court panel last year.
We've seen right-wing GOP Governor Scott Walker's "chamber of commerce mentality"-DNR green light wetlands fillings, cut back pollution inspections, tolerate groundwater contaminating manure flows from feedlots with comical wrist-slaps and let sand mine diggers tear up even pristine woodlands, but right-wing GOP Attorney General Brad Schimel - - with a chief of staff from the ranks of lobbyists and a new internal unit established to give priority to a conservative, corporate agenda - - has given a major polluter a jaw-dropping pass:
A 'settlement' to stop polluting the air without a penalty...The spectacle of official Wisconsin fighting to maintain discriminatory voting districts is the same kind of abuse of state power and dollars that has forced people at the grassroots to dig into their own pockets to protect their water rights or legal rights (the Kohler golf course outrage) which have been systematically obstructed by Wisconsin GOP officials, state personnel and public agencies throughout the current decade.
Question. What kind of government funds secretly-drawn legislation, keeps burning through public dollars to try and legitimize it while also forcing taxpayers to fight other publicly-subsidized policy abuses by drawing down their personal accounts, too?
Answer: As exposed via Walker's 'chamber of commerce mentality"-driven DNR, a government without a moral center, as I have been arguing from the earliest weeks of the Walker era:
Among Scott Walker's Deficits: Moral Authority
