Ask Me Help Desk - The choice in Wisconsin

OK then just to make it clear. I think all subsidies,incentives, tax credits, preferences , loan guarantees distort the market . That includes givebacks to all fossil fuel ,nuclear ,biodiesal ,ethanol ,and so called other green energy sources domestic and foreign .I'd like a neutral playing field for all forms of energy .Then let the market decide .

Now that is cleared up ,the issue that states through the collective bargaining process have over committed to their public service employees and will continue to do so as long as the unions think they can pick to pockets of the taxpayers.
Even if you are for redistribution ,that can't be what you have in mind.

Update .
Yesterday there was a crucial State Supreme Court election in Wisconsin. Turnout was off the charts(33.5% of voting-age adults... 1.5 million voters ) . The unions poured a small fortune into this election ,and did their best to smear the Republican candidate ,incumbent Justice David Prosser .

With 99% of the vote counted ,Prosser leads challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg by about 600 votes( 0.04% of ballots ).
This is sure to be a recount situation .

A Prosser win means Governor Walker's needed collective bargaining reforms survive a court challenge as conservative justices will retain a 4-3 majority on the high court.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomder55

The unions poured a small fortune into this election

Hello again, tom:

You forgot the money that Karl Rove and the Koch brothers poured in too. I thought the challenger would whip the incumbent's butt, but nooooo. It's too close to call..

excon

Don't know the spending breakdown .But to be fair... Both sides spent plenty ($3.7 million for an otherwise minor judicial race) .
The turn out rivaled Presidential primaries .

I bet the Dems bring the Franken recount team in to the state.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomder55

I bet the Dems bring the Franken recount team in to the state.

Hello again, tom:

What? You ain't got your own Bush v Gore team?

excon

The Bush v Gore team was the independent newspaper group that did a recount of Fla. 2000 and found that Bush won by more than the official final count.
http://articles.cnn.com/2001-04-04/p...PM:ALLPOLITICS

Prosser's lead has grown to 835. Still headed for a recount but that's a better cushion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomder55

The Bush v Gore team was the independent newspaper group that did a recount of Fla. 2000 and found that Bush won by more than the official final count.

Hello again, tom:

I'm not going to look, but I'll bet I can find an article saying that, after the votes were counted, Franken won. But, that was then, and this is now. As you say, it's up to the lawyers.

excon

Yeah Franken won when counters in Democratic counties kept 'finding ' new previously uncounted votes for Franken .The percentage of discovered ballots that favored Franken defied statistical probability.sorta the magic ballot theory .

But you are right about this... Franken's lawyers wanted it more than Coleman's. The real tragedy of the 2000 Presidential election was any court's involvement in a political process. We are to be plagued with many more contests decided in the courts instead of the ballot box.

Interesting thought . Which court decides a judicial election ?

Latest reports is that Kloppenburg now has a narrow lead with a few more districts to count.

Besides private money funding this campaign through issue ads , the taxpayers of Wisconsin ,through a law passed in 2009 by the Dem legislature ,had to post up $400,000 to each campaign . This law was designed to publicly finance judicial races if they agreed to largely forego private fundraising.
See how that worked out ? Oh they didn't take any money for their campaigns all right. But that didn't prevent millions of $$$ in campaigning from outside (that pesky 1st Amendment ).

This is likely to go to a recount. These rules are waived for a recount ,and both candidates can fund raise to their hearts content. There are no limits either in the amt they raise ,and there are no restrictions on individual contributions.

Game changer . A whole Republican leaning town did not have their results reported to the press yesterday.
When we leftyesterday there was a deadlock in the State Supreme Court election between Republican incumbent Justice David Prosser ,rival of Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, and challenger and crony of Abrahamson , JoAnne Kloppenburg

Kloppenburg hung onto a razor thin lead in the race ,almost guaranteeing weeks of a costly recount . But today is another day.

Today county clerks around Wisconsin reviewed the votes in the race and several thousand votes that favor Prosser went uncounted yesterday. This is breaking news but what I hear is that it is a game decider . A whole township (Brookfield) was not counted and as many as 7500 votes were not counted in this Republican city.

Game-Changer In Wisconsin - Hotline On Call

A press conference was just held ,and according to the Milwaulkee Sentinel ,Prosser did indeed pick up 7,582 votes.
Prosser picks up 7,582 votes in Waukesha County - JSOnline

Hello again, tom:

Newly found, huh? Right... Who found 'em. The Koch brothers? Okee, doakee.

excon

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomder55

Game changer . A whole Republican leaning town did not have their results reported to the press yesterday.
When we leftyesterday there was a deadlock in the State Supreme Court election between Republican incumbent Justice David Prosser ,rival of Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, ,and challenger and crony of Abrahamson , JoAnne Kloppenburg

Kloppenburg hung onto a razor thin lead in the race ,almost guaranteeing weeks of a costly recount . But today is another day.

Today county clerks around Wisconsin reviewed the votes in the race and several thousand votes that favor Prosser went uncounted yesterday. This is breaking news but what I hear is that it is a game decider . A whole township (Brookfield) was not counted and as many as 7500 votes were not counted in this Republican city.

Game-Changer In Wisconsin - Hotline On Call

A press conference was just held ,and according to the Milwaulkee Sentinel ,Prosser did indeed pick up 7,582 votes.
Prosser picks up 7,582 votes in Waukesha County - JSOnline

That's standard operating procedure in the DNC "How to steal an election" handbook. It comes before "Ballot stuffing if you are short votes".

Interesting electoral system

Quote:

Originally Posted by excon

Hello again, tom:

Newly found, huh? Right... Who found 'em. The Koch brothers? Okee, doakee.

Excon

I'm sure that will be the Dem spin.
The count at this time is unofficial and given the nature of the error almost certainly to be challenged. The county clerk in question ,Kathy Nickolaus,"found " 14,315 votes . Of those, Justice David Prosser had an advantage of 7,582 .These votes are in fact recorded votes ,but she had miscounted due to some kind of computer error.

Quote:

Nickolaus explained that she had failed to save data in her computer and consequently report votes cast in the city of Brookfield. Smaller discrepancies turned up in two other communities.

Nation & World | Clerk's error turns Wisconsin high-court race around | Seattle Times Newspaper
The vote count was also confirmed by the Democrat representative of the Board of Canvassers ,so it appears to be a legitimate mistake by someone who probably should be doing something else for a living .

Quote:

At the news conference with Nickolaus, Ramona Kitzinger, the Democrat on the Waukesha County Board of Canvassers, said: "We went over everything and made sure all the numbers jibed up and they did."

As a Democrat, she said, "I'm not going to stand here and tell you something that's not true."

These results will most likely stand .All this really means is that the Dems will shift focus on the recall efforts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by smoothy

That's standard operating procedure in the DNC "How to steal an election" handbook. It comes before "Ballot stuffing if you are short votes".

Not really . The Dem playbook has them found in the trunk of someone's car.
The truth is that there was a report about missing returns before they were found. So this appears to be a legitimate mistake by Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus .
The smears have already started . Her life is going to be hell for a while.

This was as they say, "human error." It happens. Unfortunately for Democrats it was not in their favor as they readily admit (jump to about 13:30 for the big moment).

Quote:

Originally Posted by speechlesstx

This was as they say, "human error."

Hello again, Steve:

Human error, huh?? I understand - Republicans wouldn't cheat. Oh, yeah - the county clerks office is a PARTISAN office. I'll bet you can GUESS which party Kathy Nickolaus belongs to.

Didja know that an audit of Nickolaus’ handling of the 2010 election found that she needed to take steps to improve security and backup procedures, like stop sharing passwords. The audit was requested after the county’s director of administration said Nickolaus had been uncooperative with attempts to have county experts review her systems and confirm backups were in place.

Didja know that Nickolaus was given immunity from prosecution in a 2002 criminal investigation into illegal activity by members of the assembly Republican Caucus. She worked for 13 years as a data analyst and computer specialist for the caucus.

Didhja know that she resigned from her state job in 2002 just before launching her county clerk campaign.

Curiouser and curiouser...

excon

Quote:

At the news conference with Nickolaus, Ramona Kitzinger, the Democrat on the Waukesha County Board of Canvassers, said: "We went over everything and made sure all the numbers jibed up and they did."

As a Democrat, she said, "I'm not going to stand here and tell you something that's not true."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...sconsin08.html

At least there weren't precincts that had more votes than it had legal residents... much less legal registered voters... Unlike Minnesota's vote fraud the Democrats committed and used their liberal justice buddies to blow off to get Al Franken into office.

UM, did you watch the video at the 13:30 mark? It was a Democrat canvasser that verified the results in Prosser's favor with no objections.

Hello again, Steve:

Um, the video didn't show up.

excon

Um. you have to follow the link I gave in the post, it ain't Youtube.

Quote:

Originally Posted by speechlesstx

it ain't Youtube.

Hello again, Steve:

Oh.

excon

Btw, I noticed today I'm in 2nd. May not be for long but I'll take it.

Hello again, Steve:

Yup. You're an up and comer.

excon

Smells like conservative victory in Wisconsin.

It isn't over until Kloppenburg says it's over . I have to wonder why her concession speech has not come as quickly as her victory speech .

Yeah, she declared victory with a 204 vote lead but won't concede a margin of 7,316. Hey, it worked for Franken, she'll just have to come up with 10 times the extra votes as he did.

John Fund wrote that we really have to do something to fix this endless cycle of disputed elections before 2012 .
John Fund: Wisconsin's Election Snafu Is a National Wake-Up Call - WSJ.com

Kloppenburg demanded her recount even though she's down 7000 votes. Watch her answer when a reporter asks her, “do you still feel that you are the winner of the election?” The question is at about 1:40. Gold I tell you, pure gold in that answer.

Want to bet a democrat "FINDS" about 8,000 ballots "surprisingly democrat" in their car trunk?

Quote:

Originally Posted by smoothy

Want to bet a democrat "FINDS" about 8,000 ballots "surprisingly democrat" in their car trunk?

It must be wonderful to live in a democracy

Quote:

Originally Posted by paraclete

It must be wonderful to live in a democracy

Democracy is great... its the Democrats that don't much believe in democracy.

Hello again,

The battle has shifted once again to the recall's... I think several Republican senators are going to bite the dust...

excon

Is that why democrats have gotten enough signatures for a recall vote on 6 republicans, LAWFULLY I might add, while the republicans are getting folks drunk to sign the recall petition for the democrats who fled the state??

And still haven't got enough.

Quote:

Originally Posted by talaniman

Is that why democrats have gotten enough signatures for a recall vote on 6 republicans, LAWFULLY I might add, while the republicans are getting folks drunk to sign the recall petition for the democrats who fled the state???

And still haven't got enough.

Getting folks drunk? Haven't heard that, but I do know the unions are still there behind those LAWFUL signatures.

Its LOCAL unions doing the heavy lifting of signatures for the recall petition. Both Republicans, and Democrats, old, and young working against the Governor, and his far reaching plot to corporatize Wisconsin. The same as they are doing in Michigan, and Ohio.

We wouldn't even have this issue if he had stuck with doing his job, and not promoting his agenda.

Municipal League discusses Snyder's plan for Michigan | detnews.com | The Detroit News

Quote:

Doug Rothwell, president and CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan, and Charlie Owens, Michigan state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, defended Snyder's plan for a $1.8 billion tax cut to businesses to be paid for with cuts in revenue sharing to municipalities, as well as a new pension tax and elimination of most personal and business tax credits including the Earned Income Tax Credit for the working poor

Sound familiar? If municipalities cannot meet his new budget benchmarks after the cuts, he comes in and appoints a new manager that can, and cancels the mayors, and city counsels (eliminate local elected government), now in the past these corporate guys have worked with elected government, NOT in place of it.

Now stop and think how they will balance local budgets, with less money coming in?? Let me know!!

LT Guv Gain Newsome of California recently went to Texas ;a state he despises ;to find out why jobs are leaving California to Texas.
Capitol Journal: Gavin Newsom treks to Texas to talk jobs - Los Angeles Times
Texas has added 165,000 jobs during the last three years.California has lost 1.2 million. California's jobless rate is 12%... 8% in Texas.

But it's no secret why. Taxes are lower for business.
There is neither 'progressive' income tax system nor a large tax burden.There is less red tape regulations ,and there is an overall better business environment .
Texas has a budget deficit. But they will grow the economy out of it without raising taxes.

Oh yeah ;and Texas has a generally low obligation to public service employee entitlements.

Quote:

Originally Posted by talaniman

Its LOCAL unions doing the heavy lifting of signatures for the recall petition. Both Republicans, and Democrats, old, and young working against the Governor, and his far reaching plot to corporatize Wisconsin. The same as they are doing in Michigan, and Ohio.

The AFL-CIO and MoveOn have a heavy hand in the recall petitions. Now again, what's this about getting people drunk to get their signature?

Quote:

We wouldn't even have this issue if he had stuck with doing his job, and not promoting his agenda.

Doing what he said would do if elected? If people were shocked by that why did they vote for him?