The latest news from the Land of the Lame Ducks is that the Wisconsin GOP - - a/k/a the Greedy Old Polluters - - wants to grab many more thousands of taxpayer dollars to keep what's left of environmental law tllted towards their donors and other special interests.
This time the pollution party wants another thumb - - or is it a million-gallon manure tank? - - on the scales when the State Supreme Court this fall takes up cases which the GOP assumes will be decided favorably by the right-wing majority it has ensconced.
Specifically, rulings which would give more groundwater to the biggest corporate users while letting the industrial-scale animal feeding operations add more and more dairy cows which will add more and more manure to the groundwater
not already siphoned off to hydrate the animals.
Noted here, earlier.
Before I get any further, the GOP's push for these rulings mean you can flush any expectation that the GOP's water task force is anything more than window-dressing.
And forget any genuine water advocacy on these and other matters should they reach the US EPA's regional office managers in Chicago, where Walkerites have assembled a lame-duck team which could do their work for Walker and his backers as effectively as are his big-spending, power-grabbing, sore-losing WI GOP legislative water-carriers back home.
Now let me add that I mean "old" as in 'old reliable,' since this current iteration of GOP corporate bellhops has been goosing along fouled water, dirtier air and wrecked ag and filled wetlands since Scott Walker installed a team atop the Department Natural Resources with his 'chamber-of-commerce mentality' who would transfer those resources to the chamber of commerce types looking for easy permits, lax inspections and effective control of the agency.
I don't mean "old" in a chronological sense. I am old people. So I know a lot of old people who are not polluters, and who would prefer their grand kids grow up as did Grandma and Poppy, when trout streams didn't run dry
or were turned through policy into phosphorous-fed, stinking green waterways.
You might think that the pollution party's ask for public money to underwrite and embed private-sector privileged access to water in a state where the Constitution says the water belongs to everyone suggests that corporate interests in Wisconsin have somehow been shut out of the process.
Actually, the opposite is true: the GOP just wants to add more injury to the insult.
Remember when major corporate water users got together and hand-delivered to Wisconsin legislators their list of demands for control of state groundwater?
Which GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos dutifully turned into a 'we-all-know-how-this-will-turn-out' request for an opinion from GOP Attorney General and Team Player Brad Schimel.
Who dutifully opined the Right's right way for grateful special interests.
And because friends are well-heeled, and are forever - - before the voters booted him out, Schimel helped fast-track the big dairy case to the high court's calendar.
At least much of all that was happening out in the open; back channels have helped give major special interests special access to decision-makers.
One of those corporate organizations, the powerful Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, has made no secret of successfully targeting large donations in Supreme Court races which have helped solidify the right's control of the high court.
The recent elevation of ultra-conservative Brian Hagedorn to the high court now tips the political balance there a 5-2 rightwing majority.
Pollution party leaders could not contain their glee over Hagedorn's presence on the bench this summer when their key cases are argued.
GOP Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald sounded like he'd just found out NSYNC was indeed going on tour again and was headed for County fair:
This time the pollution party wants another thumb - - or is it a million-gallon manure tank? - - on the scales when the State Supreme Court this fall takes up cases which the GOP assumes will be decided favorably by the right-wing majority it has ensconced.
Specifically, rulings which would give more groundwater to the biggest corporate users while letting the industrial-scale animal feeding operations add more and more dairy cows which will add more and more manure to the groundwater
not already siphoned off to hydrate the animals.
 |
| Manure runoff in Kewaunee County |
Walker legacy runoff from oversized feedlots and dirty legislation has flowed onto the dockets of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Major cases involving gubernatorial powers and environmental impacts of large-scale animal feeding operations are being taken up by the high court.
Before I get any further, the GOP's push for these rulings mean you can flush any expectation that the GOP's water task force is anything more than window-dressing.
And forget any genuine water advocacy on these and other matters should they reach the US EPA's regional office managers in Chicago, where Walkerites have assembled a lame-duck team which could do their work for Walker and his backers as effectively as are his big-spending, power-grabbing, sore-losing WI GOP legislative water-carriers back home.
Now let me add that I mean "old" as in 'old reliable,' since this current iteration of GOP corporate bellhops has been goosing along fouled water, dirtier air and wrecked ag and filled wetlands since Scott Walker installed a team atop the Department Natural Resources with his 'chamber-of-commerce mentality' who would transfer those resources to the chamber of commerce types looking for easy permits, lax inspections and effective control of the agency.
I don't mean "old" in a chronological sense. I am old people. So I know a lot of old people who are not polluters, and who would prefer their grand kids grow up as did Grandma and Poppy, when trout streams didn't run dry
 |
River Alliance of Wisconsin photos of the Little Plover River |
You might think that the pollution party's ask for public money to underwrite and embed private-sector privileged access to water in a state where the Constitution says the water belongs to everyone suggests that corporate interests in Wisconsin have somehow been shut out of the process.
Actually, the opposite is true: the GOP just wants to add more injury to the insult.
Remember when major corporate water users got together and hand-delivered to Wisconsin legislators their list of demands for control of state groundwater?
Which GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos dutifully turned into a 'we-all-know-how-this-will-turn-out' request for an opinion from GOP Attorney General and Team Player Brad Schimel.
Who dutifully opined the Right's right way for grateful special interests.
AG's Ruling on Wells Praised by Special Interests that Spent $2.2M to Elect HimThere was about as much surprise in Schimel's ruling as there would have been if you had Colonel Sanders put together the menu for your wedding dinner
And because friends are well-heeled, and are forever - - before the voters booted him out, Schimel helped fast-track the big dairy case to the high court's calendar.
At least much of all that was happening out in the open; back channels have helped give major special interests special access to decision-makers.
Dairy group uses behind-the-scenes influence with Gov. Scott Walker to shift regulation of large livestock farmsSpecial interests also got the State Supreme Court to codify as judicial procedure in Wisconsin their proposed code of ethics that allowed justices to rule on cases in which parties appearing before them had given donations to the justices' campaign committees.
One of those corporate organizations, the powerful Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, has made no secret of successfully targeting large donations in Supreme Court races which have helped solidify the right's control of the high court.
The recent elevation of ultra-conservative Brian Hagedorn to the high court now tips the political balance there a 5-2 rightwing majority.
Pollution party leaders could not contain their glee over Hagedorn's presence on the bench this summer when their key cases are argued.
GOP Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald sounded like he'd just found out NSYNC was indeed going on tour again and was headed for County fair:
"Thank God for Brian Hagedorn," Fitzgerald said. "I can’t wait for him to be seated."
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