The summer of 1973, the nation was transfixed on the Watergate hearings, the Congressional investigation into what was once described as a third-rate burglary of the Democratic Party’s headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C.

This was before cable, let alone the 24 hour news channels. And yet, it is estimated that 85 percent of the country saw at least part of the 319 hours of hearings that were broadcast in place of regular programming simultaneously on ABC, CBS and NBC before the networks took turns showing these hearings. Ultimately, it was the coverup that brought Richard Nixon down and led to his resignation. Many in his administration went to prison, although he did not because Vice President Ford pardoned Nixon once Ford became president.

I thought of Watergate this morning when I saw the headline on the La Crosse Tribune, “More Walker Aids charged: Two accused of illegal fundraising; John Doe investigation continues.” The key words here are “more” and “investigation continues.”

A John Doe is the Wisconsin Version of a grand jury investigation. What the Walker workers are accused of doing as county employees is to use work time to do Walker gubernatorial campaign fundraising activities. Accusations also included Walker’s close associates used personal laptop computers and an unofficial “secret email system” to solicit money for the campaigns of Walker and Brett Davis, who was then running for lieutenant governor. As the Wisconsin State Journal reported, investigators said they kept the system hidden “from all but a close group of Walker’s insiders.”

The attorney for one of those charged, Darlene Wink, said Wink is “clearly adamant that at no time did Scott Walker know that she was doing any of this type of behavior.”

Wink. Wink. I’m sure he didn’t know.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/doe27-6q3v4uj-138159264.html

And Walker also has said he was not aware of the activities of two of his appointees, Tim Russell and Kevin Kavanaugh, who were charged with embezzling from veterans’ groups.  Also, a partner of Russell’s, Brian Pierick, was charged with child enticement because of what was found on his computer during the embezzlement investigation.

As my dad would say, “You lie down with dogs, you come up with fleas.”

There must be a special place in hell for those who wear flag lapel pins, claim to support the troops and then steal from them – those who put their lives on the line for our country.

To have this kind of wanton disregard for law is so ironically outrageous, considering the Republicans worked so hard to get a draconian voter ID law passed when Wisconsin has had only a handful of fraudulent cases. That voter ID law seems innocuous except that those most likely to be unable to have the needed identification are poor, elderly and students – those mostly likely to vote for Democrats.

When I was transferring to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study journalism, I wrote an essay that I used as a writing sample when I applied to work at the student newspaper, The Daily Cardinal. It began: “I was never given an opportunity to be objective about Richard Nixon. At a very young age, my mother warned me about the dangers I would encounter in life. At the top of her list were eating onions and believe Richard Nixon. Both onions and Mr. Nixon upset her stomach.”

Onions continue to be nonstarters in our family, except for my son (where did I go wrong?) and son in law (where did Maggie go wrong? Actually she didn’t), although if cooked I can handle onions.

My mother disliked Richard Nixon because having lived in San Francisco during World War II, she stayed tuned into what was happening in California. Both my parents were appalled at the red-baiting that Nixon did to get elected to the U.S. Senate in 1950 by accusing Helen Gahagan Douglas of being a communist. It was thought to be the origins of the dirty tricks campaign that Nixon continued into the White House.

In Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady: Richard Nixon vs. Helen Gahagan Douglas, author Greg Mitchell wrote there were suggestions that she was “soft on communism” and they had a publication that was literally a pink sheet that compared her votes with a left-leaning colleague. The San Francisco Gate wrote, “In what Mitchell described as ‘one of the lowest blows of the entire campaign,’ Nixon accused Douglas on the radio of ‘refusing to tell you which side she is on in this conflict” (the Korean War).”

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1998/01/25/RV72971.DTL#ixzz1kflylqwF

My parents were very upset about this, knowing how wrong and unfair that was. This was the era of the blacklists – when even the whisper of having known a Communist could get you unemployed and unable to find another job. Wisconsin Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy was another of the horrific innuendo throwing, character assassins in government who were eager to destroy others for their own benefit.

Scott Walker did some of the same when he came into office and threw flames at public employees, blaming them for any troubles we had in this state.

One of the most endearing lines from the Watergate hearings came from a Republican Senator Howard Baker on the Judiciary Committee: “What did he know and when did he know it?”

The discovery that Nixon knew a lot prior to the hearings for two years led to his being charged in the U.S. Senate with abuse of power. He resigned before a trial would have been held.

It is ironic that one of those Walker employees charged Thursday with named Wink because I would guess Walker winks about what he knows about all this. I suspect he was  much more than he admits to at this point. If nothing else, he is very guilty of hiring people who do illegal things. At the least you have to question his character and judgment.

But perhaps his staff did keep him out of the loop so he could, Wink. Wink. Wink. And say, “I didn’t know anything.”

And he was quoted in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article as having written an email to Timothy Russell an aide ad adviser saying, “We cannot afford another story like this one. No one can give them any reason to do another story. That means no laptops, no websites, no time away during the work day, etc.”

He knew. But when and how much?

I know my parents would be proud of me for fighting back even though the fight for public employee rights is not precisely mine. But I recognize injustice and unfairness, and I know public employees work hard under very difficult circumstances. And I know they gave up pay raises for many years for better healthcare benefits.

Here’s one more homage to Richard Nixon – Walkergate. I’m sure someone has already applied that over used gate to apply to Walker, but if not, let me be the first.

Walker has done so much to destroy our state while giving special advantages to his donors. He has run roughshod over anyone who was not a Republican while claiming to want to bring us together. Those are some of the reasons for the recall, although with these latest findings and more likely to come, maybe we could move toward impeachment, depending upon what is learned through the investigations.

My parents used to say, “Don’t get mad. Write a letter.” And they did that when they felt they were treated badly or when they took issue with a government action. My dad wrote letters to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, while my mom sent indignant letters to companies.

My blog post follows in their footsteps.

That, and registering voters – without asking for their political views. Even if I knew they were Republicans, I still would register them. That is what democracy is all about.

How in the world could anyone support George W. Bush? I could not fathom it. I still can’t. But that litany of reasons is for the past. I believe in moving forward and for this president, I would have such a bumper sticker. I’m sure there are folks who would ask that question of me.

I think Barack Obama is the most patriotic president I have seen in my lifetime. And Patriotism is much more than a flag pin on the lapel. It is a belief not just that our country is great, but that we truly can do better. And we can do better for all of us not just for some.

His State of the Union address on Tuesday blew me away. Without knowing at the time what had happened that night – the secret rescue of two hostages held by Somali pirates by Navy Seals – he spoke of what could be learned from the men and women in the military.

Which brings me back to where I began. Those of us who’ve been sent here to serve can learn a thing or two from the service of our troops. When you put on that uniform, it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, Asian, Latino, Native American, conservative, liberal, rich, poor, gay, straight. When you’re marching into battle, you look out for the person next to you, or the mission fails. When you’re in the thick of the fight, you rise or fall as one unit, serving one nation, leaving no one behind.

You know, one of my proudest possessions is the flag that the SEAL team took with them on the mission to get bin Laden. On it are each of their names. Some may be Democrats; some may be Republicans. But that doesn’t matter. Just like it didn’t matter that day in the Situation Room, when I sat next to Bob Gates, a man who was George Bush’s defense secretary, and Hillary Clinton, a woman who ran against me for president.

All that mattered that day was the mission. No one thought about politics. No one thought about themselves.

One of the young men involved in the raid later told me that he didn’t deserve credit for the mission. It only succeeded, he said, because every single member of that unit did their job: the pilot who landed the helicopter that spun out of control; the translator who kept others from entering the compound; the troops who separated the women and children from the fight; the SEALs who charged up the stairs. More than that, the mission only succeeded because every member of that unit trusted each other, because you can’t charge up those stairs into darkness and danger unless you know that there’s somebody behind you watching your back.

So it is with America. Each time I look at that flag, I’m reminded that our destiny is stitched together like those fifty stars and those thirteen stripes. No one built this country on their own. This nation is great because we built it together. This nation is great because we worked as a team. This nation is great because we get each other’s backs. And if we hold fast to that truth, in this moment of trial, there is no challenge too great; no mission too hard. As long as we’re joined in common purpose, as long as we maintain our common resolve, our journey moves forward, and our future is hopeful, and the state of our union will always be strong.

I have heard the raid into Somalia was even more dangerous than the one that killed Osama Bin Ladin. And for a sitting president, it was more dangerous because if it had done all wrong as other rescue missions have in the past – including one in Somalia – it would have been disaster for Obama’s reelection.

The point is he took the greatest risk in his political life in order to save this young woman and her colleague from Denmark.

Michelle Obama watches as President Obama calls the father of the American hostage, Jessica Buchanan, to tell him that U.S. Special Forces had rescued her. White House photo

After the State of the Union, Obama was said to have left more quickly than usual because he had a phone call to make. He called  John Buchanan to tell him his daughter was safe.

Buchanan said in a CNN interview that the operation left him with an overwhelming patriotism. ”I’m extremely proud and glad to be an American,” he said. “I didn’t know this was going to transpire. I’m glad it did.”

Heck, the Somalian government was appreciative as well, saying in a statement it  ”is a great joy to the Somali government and to all Somalis as well as to all right thinking people everywhere. … Hitting them hard is the only language kidnappers of innocent people, pirates and terrorists understand, and every opportunity should be taken to wipe out this scourge from our country.”

I am not a big fan of war – I think the mistakes of Iraq and Afghanistan only confirm the need to be wiser in how we use military force. But two families have their loved ones back, thanks to the incredible Navy Seals and a president who had the guts to order the mission.

This, my friend, is a marriage even if the state in which they live does not allow for such a legal recognition of a love that goes far beyond the couple.

And what do you call the parents of your partner of many years? Legally, they aren’t in-laws and yet they certainly are not out-laws either. They are family.  This is a traditional family even without marriage because they have such an open house and open hearts. And this is true pro-life, I might add. They are respect human life enough to be there at the end of it.

Compare this same-sex couple who would love to have their relationship officially recognized i their own state to Newt Gingrich. This bully, a  sanctimonious Republican presidential candidate, claims to be all about traditional marriage between a man and a woman and a woman and a woman. He is in his third marriage and now has a blonde wife looking admiring at him as he spews hate.

Traditional-values Newt left his wife while she was recovering from breast cancer surgery and his second months after she learned she was developing MS.

Apparently, he took to heart that awful quote from “Love Story:” “Love means never having to say you are sorry.”

Oh he admits that he was not always a good man but now claims he is a new man, one who has gotten right with his God. Oh, goodie.

When our kids were little and went out of control, we gave them a time out in their rooms “until you are pleasant.” I remember Matt screaming down the stairs, “I’m pleasant!!!!” It was done in a way that, shall we say, was not exactly pleasant.

It also reminds of the so-called pro-life president we had before Barrack Obama was governor of a state that proudly executed prisoners – who cares if they were really guilty – without saying he was sorry.  George W. Bush was seen laughing about a prisoner’s execution. He also made fun of a woman who was executed in 1988 – the first woman executed in Texas in a century.

Apparently, Republicans can claim they are forgiven by God  - and therefore run nasty political  campaigns – but not this woman who became a Christian in prison and was repentant for what she had done.

And I will say this again. You cannot be pro-life if you don’t care about the life after it is born or what I call the already-born.

I am not a Christian, but i think that Newt would practice selective Christianity … you believe in the repentance – for yourself – until the next time you want to leave a sick wife.

Newt, you are no mensch, a Yiddish term that describes a person of honor and integrity.

This same-sex couple clearly are mensch.

Thank you for showing us what a real love – and family – look like. I would wish you the strength to get through this, but I think you already have found the strength in each other and family.

They'll tell us it's a polka dot sky and expect us to believe it.

Tuesday afternoon I watched live streaming of boxes and boxes of recall petitions being delivered to the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board in Madison.

They were said to weigh 3,000 pounds and contain more than 1 million signatures to recall Governor Scott Walker and 900,000 signatures to recall Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch plus 21,000 signatures each to recall four Republican state senators. The million is just under the 1.1 million that put them into office after the 2010 elections.

I am proud to have gathered my share of signatures, one of thousands of volunteers across the state.

What would cause a person to stand in the Wisconsin cold from November through January for a couple of hours at a time or to knock on doors seeking signatures? It seems pretty darn crazy to me.

The real reason, I believe, is determination of the Republicans to call the sky polka dot and expect us to not just believe it but love it.

Ben Sparks, communications director for the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said of the recall petitions that there would be an army of Republicans looking for  fraud. “Our sole focus is to ensure Wisconsin electors are not disenfranchised,” he said.

Republicans concerned about voters being disenfranchised is the clearest definition of chutzpah that I have ever seen. It even beats the standard example from the Joy of Yiddish book in which a son on trial for murdering his parents asks for the “mercy of the court because I am an orphan.”

Only after a million signatures to recall Walker – and 900,000 for his lieutenant governor – are delivered were Republicans suddenly worried about voters being disenfranchised.

Why is this chutzpah? In Wisconsin and across other states, states that turned red after the 2010 elections initiated very restrictive voter ID laws supposedly designed not to prevent voter fraud, but really to keep their lock on power as were many other actions.

What the voter ID bill really does is make it hard to vote for those most likely to cast their ballots for Democrats – the poor, people of color, students and the elderly.

I spent an hour and a half Tuesday getting trained to be a special deputy to register people to vote. I was among folks of similar political bent but we will never ask prospective voters what their politics are. We strongly believe in democracy. I don’t believe the Republicans do.They also have redrawn political districts to make sure they keep majorities in the Legislature.

Another polka dot sky comment in the La Crosse Tribune today came  from our supposedly nonpartisan Mayor Matt Harter about his vetoes of two advisory referendums that would be on the April ballot. “This issue will require a great deal of discussion and education,” he said. “Hitting them all at once with four questions in one election is simply too much.”

He thinks we are just too dumb to handle more than one referendum question? Isn’t taking away the opportunity for voters to voice their opinions on referendums disenfranchisement?

Harter wants only one referendum – one asks if we support a city administrator – on the ballot. His hope, of course, is that the measure is defeated.

La Crosse County achieved great savings by having a county administrator. Tax savings is something that Harter and his Republican supporters claim to want, but not when there would be a real opportunity to do so with professional management. They prefer  crony-management in city government.

Harter wants to keep his job. And those who put him in office want to keep  their control of  city government. Incidentally, his family waste removal business has the city’s single largest contract.

One of the vetoed referendums would reduce the City Council from 17 to 13 seats so district lines would match the redistricted county board wards. Voters will be confused when they go to the polls and discover they are in one district for city representation and another for county. It makes sense to make districts uniform. And fewer council members also would save money.

The other veto was on a referendum on off-premise digital billboards in the city. We have a huge digital billboard just outside the city limits that was hurriedly put up while there was discussions underway about whether we want them or not. This billboard has a startling, in-your-face glare and disrupts the exquisite natural beauty of our community, which is located between scenic bluffs and the Mississippi River.

Some 200 people – including myself – went to a hearing on digital signs a few weeks ago. Most – but not all – were opposed to them. We live in a beautiful area that has more billboards per capital than just about any city in Wisconsin and our state has more billboards per capital than just about any other state.

I would hate the billboards to block views of our polka dot sky.

But worry not. Super Pacs will blast us with millions of dollars in ads on television and in that digital billboard to make us believe in the polka dot sky they gave us and to be grateful for it.

Students at R.J. Grey Junior High of Acton, Massachusetts, performed 'The Music Man Junior" in March 2011. The musical was set in 1912 in fictional River City, Iowa, believed to be Mason City, Iowa.

Oh, Iowa. You are just an hour or so away from me but a million miles politically – at least in the Republican Party where the so-called values conservatives prevail. It is amazing how few caucus goers – 120,000-  can have such a big impact on the race.

Willard Mitt – never a hair out of place in my 170 years of campaigning in Iowa – Romney received just seven votes more than Rick – don’t Google the meaning of my last name – Santorum. Willard received 30,015 votes or 24.6 percent of the caucus votes, while Santorum received 30,007. The difference was .2 percent.

Rick – how do I get this shoe out of my mouth – Perry received 12,604 votes but that was big compared with Michelle – don’t confuse me with the truth – Bachmann, who received 6,073 votes or 5 percent. Ron – gosh my racist newsletter wasn’t even written by me – Paul received 26,219 for third place. And Newt – a cross word would never cross my lips – Gingrich got 16,251 and Jon – seems the most reasonable so will never really get a shot at the presidency – Huntsman, who bypassed Iowa, received 745 votes.

Remember the Iowa Stubborn song from The Music Man? It goes to the issue of whether the very conservative folks in Iowa were picking a president or weeding out candidates – Bachman left the race Wednesday, while Perry says he’s going on to South Carolina (bypassing New Hampshire).

When we treat you, there’s nothing halfway

About the Iowa way to treat you,

Which we may not do at all.

There’s an Iowa kind of special

Chip-on-the-shoulder attitude.

We’ve never been without.

That we recall.

We can be cold

As our falling thermometers in December

If you ask about our weather in July.

And we’re so by God stubborn

We could stand touchin’ noses

For a week at a time

And never see eye-to-eye

But what the heck,

you’re welcome,

Join us at the picnic.

[ From: http://www.metrolyrics.com/iowa-stubborn-lyrics-music-man.html ]

Gingrich may have come in fourth, but he has put a target on Romney, just as Romney’s PAC put a target on Gingrich in the Iowa campaign.

In comments quoted by Reuters, Gingrich said, “Together I think we survived the biggest onslaught in the history of the Iowa primary. We aren’t going to go out and run nasty ads. But I do reserve the right to tell the truth. And if the truth seems negative, that may be more a comment on (Romney’s) record than it is on politics.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/04/us-usa-campaign-gingrich-idUSTRE8030CZ20120104

Gingrich vowed to challenge Romney’s conservative credentials in the weeks ahead. Clearly, none of these candidates picked up Midwest Nice personalities in their visits to Iowa, but they did pick up on that so-called stubbornness.

It used to be said that the Republicans were all unified, but Democrats “ate their young,” a reference to their willingness to attack each other. Not so this year. Republicans have some of the biggest fangs I’ve ever seen.

You go, boys. Chomp away. You are making wonderful commercials for President Obama this year.

I would put my trust in a single-payer healthcare system, not in insurance companies, the original death panels. Source for cartoon: http://www.examiner.com/liberal-in-anchorage/two-unlikely-supporters-of-death-panels-palin-and-gingrich

On this day of the Iowa caucus, I have a few things to say.

The Republican candidates have tried to outdo each other in condemning Obamacare, as they call it with disdain. Despite it being modeled on the Massachusetts model of Willard “Mitt” Romney, that candidate claims he had nothing to do with it.

In 2008, Newt Gingrich said in a speech, “The third thing I think you have to do, which is for a conservative a little controversial, is I think you’ve got to require everybody to either have insurance or to post a bond.” In other words, he supported the individual mandate before he opposed it.

And then there’s Rick Santorum, who responded to a question about health care and Christianity, with this statement, “The answer is not what can we do to prevent deaths because of a lack of health insurance. There’s — I reject that number completely, that people die in America because of lack of health insurance.”

He clearly has never had to worry about his healthcare plan, or tried to battle an insurance company to get the benefits for which he is entitled.

The biggest problem with ObamaCare – the Affordable Healthcare Act – is that it didn’t go far enough. We need a single payer plan like other industrialized countries have.

And I use ObamaCare with pride – he had the guts to try to do something about our healthcare problems.

And don’t throw waiting lists at me for Canada and Britain – if it is life threatening, care is immediate just like in the United States. And if it is not life threatening, there are waits like we have in the United States. But no one goes bankrupt in those countries because of a medical diagnosis like we do here.

Why we still have a profit-based, employer-based system is insane. It is the profit demands of private insurance companies that kill people. Corporations will fight to the death of their subscribers – not stockholders – to pay as little as possible. Their way of saying good morning is “claim denied.”

If you have the strength to do so, you fight it. I’ve had to do that a lot with my cancer care even thought we had private insurance through my husband’s employer. You have to be persistent and determined.

I’d like to know how much money insurance companies invest in the infrastructure to turn down legitimate claims. That money could be used to provide actual care to subscribers. I’d like to know how many people die waiting for prior approval from an insurance company or while battling for payment.

If you think that cannot happen to you, then I have a Republican candidate in Iowa you can buy.

Think about the lost creativity and inspiration from folks who are afraid to leave their jobs with insurance to create their own products, then you can see the real cost of our healthcare system now.

What does this have to do with the metric system, which seems so reasonable compared to the odd measurement system that we have? We were supposed to change into the metric system in the 1970s, but Americans could not go the same way as the rest of the world. Inherently, we believe we are better at everything whether it is healthcare or measurements.

It’s nuts.

Wendell Potter, former head of CIIGNA insurance, wrote an article posted on www.PRWatch.com in which he notes we have the most expensive healthcare system – not the best. Exceptions are that we are number one in  five-year survival rate for breast cancer (thank you very much) and the second highest survival rate for colon cancer after Japan.

To those who think we have the best healthcare system, he wrote, “Well, those guys need to get out more. Out of the country, in fact. They need to travel to at least one of the many countries that are doing a much better job of delivering high quality care at much lower costs than the good old USA.”

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/11/11152/best-health-care-system-not-usa-despite-constant-spin-make-us-believe-it”

He mentioned specifically Speaker John Boehner’s comment that the plan would kill jobs and is unnecessary because we have the best system in the world. “I’ve heard GOP candidates for president say the same thing in recent months, charging that we need to get rid of a President who clearly is trying to fix something that doesn’t need fixing, something that isn’t broken in the first place,” Potter wrote.

A high school photo of me wearing a "God's Eye," which is what we wore over our graduation gowns in 1970 to show our disapproval of the Vietnam War. The God's Eye, I just read in Wikipedia (take it for what it's worth) is symbolic of the power of seeing and understanding that which is unknown and unknowable, The Mystery. The four points represent the elemental processes earth, fire, air, and water. I even had opinions then, not to mention the belief that I understood the mysteries of life.

Consider yourself lucky. Some of the blog posts of 2011 got away – meaning they were never posted. And that is a good thing.

It’s like the road less taken, only it’s the posts not posted.

I use my husband and kids to be my filters, not that I would need one or anything (yes I do). Sometimes I go too far even in the going too far category of life in which I live and/or write..

So here’s to what I haven’t posted, thanks to family members saying don’t do that.

I salute those who have laughed along with me, provided inspiration and support and actually subscribe to my blogs.

As to all of you people I haven’t quite offended yet  with my blunt views, may you worry that I still will publish these posts if I can get them by the family censors and/or folks with more common sense than me.

Happy New Year all.

I support the expansion of  Family Care, a wonderful program that helps older people stay out of nursing homes. My mother benefited from it when she moved to La Crosse and then became unable to care for herself. It is more humane and it saves money.

But Walker cynically used it because white and gray-haired folks like myself vote in large numbers. He wants to look like a good guy by supporting Family Care, something that he capped in July.

What’s the difference you might ask? Just so it gets done and elderly people have this opportunity?

A second story on the subject was published today by the Associated Press that told the truth about his pronouncement – it was politics as usual. Walker was ordered to lift the cap by the federal government, not because he wanted to do so. 

Here’s what the AP wrote: Gov. Scott Walker failed to reveal that the federal government had ordered him to immediately lift an enrollment cap on a state program to help the disabled and elderly stay out of nursing homes, instead telling reporters that his administration removed restrictions after identifying tens of millions of dollars in efficiencies in the program.

Walker, a Republican, called a news conference Wednesday morning to announce he would lift the two-year enrollment cap on the Family Care program and expand it to the 15 counties that don’t currently offer it.

He imposed the cap in the budget that took effect July 1. Lifting it marks a surprising reversal for Walker, who has been pushing to slash state Medicaid spending since he took office in January.

Walker told reporters the move was spurred by discussions with Family Care program providers that identified $80 million in savings. He never mentioned that the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had ordered him to remove the cap more than two weeks earlier.

In a Dec. 13 letter to the state, CMS Associate Regional Director Verlon Johnson said the center was still reviewing whether to approve the enrollment cap. Until then, Johnson wrote, the state must run Family Care as it was before the cap was imposed and lift the limit straight away.

Read more: http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/feds-ordered-walker-to-lift-program-cap/article_282af398-31da-11e1-8b7a-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz1hxbO9Fu6

Walker’s press conference was so deceitful. It was politics as his usual – telling half truths and claiming responsibility for something that was not his choice.

A second story in the La Crosse Tribune was equally frustrating. It said that state IDs, including driver’s licenses and IDs for those who do not drive, will now come from a California company in the mail 10 days after you get or renew your license. Persons will leave the Division of Motor Vehicles with a receipt that has their photo and a bar code. While this paper is supposed to be allowed to be used for driving and/or voting, it will add confusion to prospective voters.

And as an election worker myself, I know it will add more time to the process of getting folks to their ballots, thanks to Wisconsin’s Voter ID law.

Here’s another problem: Not only does it mean that a California company gets this contract (what happened to Wisconsin jobs?), it will cost Wisconsin, which is  supposed to be broke,  an additional $1.3 million a year.

There’s always money in our so-called broke state for his agenda.

All this reminds me of the old saying,  ”Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

Or as George W. Bush butchered it years ago, “There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — [pauses] — shame on you. Fool me — [pauses] — You can’t get fooled again.”

Wisconsin: please don’t be fooled again by Scott Walker. Spread the word about Family Care – he is trying to take credit for something he opposed.

Please, we can’t be fooled again.

As this sign from a protestor earlier this year says, "Becomes governor; breaks everything."

The latest ad in support of Governor Scott Walker has him and his family dishing it out to the poor at the Milwaukee Rescue Mission.

“In this season of peace, our hope is that we can put our differences aside and move forward together,” says his wife, Tonette Walker, surrounded by her family.

Oh, I meant, dissing it out.

It just seems so cynically ironic to me that the Walker family would supposedly be serving food to the poor when he has spent the last year taking so much away from working people, increasing the need for programs like the Milwaukee Rescue Mission.

And the fact that the ad includes his teen-aged sons is as hypocritical as it gets, particularly when he has said he wants to keep his sons out of the fray – as he should.

Working together is the theme of his millions of dollars in ads that are flooding television, thanks to the Koch brothers and their Americans for Prosperity ilk. He has raised something like $5 million to do this – about three times that raised by the recall effort. Sadly, in politics, money rules way too often.

Had he been willing to work together we would not be in the mess we are in. He has worked the politics of division since he came into office, demonizing teachers and other public employees. His efforts were not about saving money, but about neutralizing and eliminating oppositions (see voter identification law, which makes it harder for students, the poor and the elderly who are mostly like to vote Democratic to vote).

Now that he is being recalled, Walking is dishing/dissing us with the notion that we should all work together. You may recall he refused to meet with unions when this democracy crisis began.

In case you have forgotten, he has dissed all of us in these ways:

• Cutting $800 million in state funding from public education, while capping how much schools could raise through property taxes. At the same time, he funneled more money to private schools in southeastern Wisconsin, without limits on the income of families of children attending them.
• Cutting more than $500 million from the BadgerCare program, which was created by former Republican Governor Tommy Thompson. That means premium increases for more than 200,000 people and 50,000 others cut from the program.
• Promising to create 250,000 jobs, but Wisconsin had 9,700 job losses in October – the largest in the country. And when he called a “jobs session” of the Legislature, not jobs bills were introduced. Instead there were social, wedge issue bills.
• Rejecting $810 million in federal funds for a high speed rail line, which would have created 5,000 jobs for several years and kept a train car manufacturing company in Milwaukee, a city that sorely needs manufacturing jobs.

As Scot Ross of One Wisconsin Now, was quoted as saying in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story, “Good thing he and the family are ‘volunteering’ for a food kitchen, because his policies are going to make even longer lines as more in the middle class fall into poverty because his policies aren’t working.”

Here’s a parody of his ad from Scott Walker Watch: http://scottwalkerwatch.com/2011/12/22/a-holiday-response-to-the-corny-30-second-walker-campaign-tv-ad-holiday-spirit-video/

We are into our second winter of our discontent. Thank you, Scott Walker, for giving us something to do in the cold and snow.

However, my blood pressure rises every time I see one of your ads. Are you literally trying to kill off your opponents?

These Racing Sausages 4 Recall actually campaigned earlier in 2011 for the State Senate Recall.

I feel sorry for my computer keyboard this morning. It is about to get such a beating, but it’s not about you, dear keyboard.

It is about Scott Walker. And this time it’s personal.

Maybe I’m a tad too sensitive having had a later diagnosis of breast cancer 30 months or so ago. Even with insurance and regular exams, etc., my sneaky cancer hidden inside a cyst was stage 3 when discovered. That meant the kitchen sink was thrown at me…. chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. So far so good. I’m doing great.

But yesterday, I read a report that gave me a reason to recall our governor, Scott Walker, and his trusty sidekick, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Metoofisch.

There are so many reasons to recall these two, but none that hit my gut quite the way Saturday’s report did.

That article on the Mother Jones website was that the Walker Administration is ending $130,000 in funding for the Well Woman Program  in four counties. They are the only  four counties where the only  provider of this free breast and cervical cancer screening program for low-income women is Planned Parenthood. Women in Winnebago, Fond du Lac, Sheboygan, and Outagamie counties will be out of luck.

As Mother Jones magazine reported, “Doctors found 15 cases of cervical and breast cancer in the 1,260 women screened in those counties in 2010—cases that likely would not have been detected if women didn’t have access to the Well Woman Program. The county health officers in two of those counties have already issued statements decrying the state for targeting Planned Parenthood for the cut and for risking the health of their residents.”

Walker confirmed the only cut in the program is with those that are provided by Planned Parenthood. And keep in mind this 17-year-old program was created under a Republican Administration.

“The program is still in place. The Well Woman, in particular to make sure women have access to exams for cancer and other things, is funding (funded). It’s in place. We’re just not contracting with Planned Parenthood to do that,” Walker said.  … ”There’s other providers throughout the state who have that. Planned Parenthood is not the sole provider of that. There are many clinics that are not as controversial as Planned Parenthood, and our goal was to make sure low-income women had access to those sorts of screenings from other providers around the state that don’t carry the controversy you get with Planned Parenthood.”

http://www.wbay.com/story/16334221/2011/12/15/state-cuts-funding-for-well-woman-program

In other words, it is another nuclear bomb in his war on the already born.

Here’s the problem with Walker’s reasoning. Not everyone has the transportation to get to those other places in the state. Particularly in the rural parts of those counties where there are no bus services and some low-income women do not own cars, having the local Planned Parenthood can be a lifesaver.

Even in cities that have bus service now are at risk because the end of collective bargaining for public employees could end federal funding grants for local transit. But since Walker has a driver – I assume – and his folks have cars, they don’t give a rat’s a.. about how other folks might get to the healthcare that should be their right.

You can bet Walker’s mother, grandmother, wife and daughters if he had them would not have to sweat over paying for cancer screenings or treatment if it came to that. That’s because he takes care of his own and the hell to the rest of us already borned.

And it is pennywise, pound idiot and pound insensitive because if you look just at costs, it is much more expensive to treat a cancer statement at a later stage than an earlier one.

In last summer’s budget that Walker signed into law a budget, it blogged all state and federal funding for 27 Planned Parenthood centers that serve 73,000 women each year. That is despite rules that already existed to prevent funding going to abortion services.

“They’re willing to put their political ideology before women’s lives,” said Tanya Atkinson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin. “That’s really what’s happening here.”

(http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2011/12/scott-walker-next-target-cancer-screenings-women)

To quote a brilliant young man – OK he’s my son, Michael – “Can this man be recalled please?” Good idea, Michael. I’ll get right on that. And please note his mother taught him to say please.

There’s an app for Scott Walker. It is called recall.

Do it for yourself, your mother, your father, your kids, grandkids.

It is about values – the pro-life value of supporting cancer screenings for low-income women – even if you don’t happen to be one of those women.

Scott Walker, you cannot pretend to be pro-life any longer if you don’t care about the already born.

And Lt. Metoofisch, you lost me when you used your own cancer as an excuse as a campaign tool when you claimed in an ad that you would not have had the wonderful healthcare you received if you had been under Obamacare. (When you said Obamacare, your eyes went all Republican on me – see the eyes of Michele Bachmnnnnnnnnnnann.)

The truth was you were on the state healthcare plan under your husband, a state legislator. Only the best for you and yours and the hell with the rest of us.

And you want to deny cancer screenings to other women who just happen to have lesser income?

You gotta go, too, Lt. Meetoofisch.

This is how I will spend my winter – again – speaking out, writing about what is happening in our state – and most just for me but for all of us.

Yes, let me repeat there is an app for that – it’s called RECALL.

Call me if you want to sign – and can legally do so – and I will come to you with a petition if you have not signed.