Agents for the embattled state Government Accountability Board continued a zealous campaign finance investigation into dozens of conservative groups even after judges who preside over the board voted to shut it down, according to a previously sealed brief made public Friday.
The documents, from an updated complaint filed by conservative plaintiffs in a case against the GAB, appear to support claims that the campaign finance, ethics and election law regulator is a rogue agency. They also show that the GAB considered using the state’s John Doe law to investigate key state conservatives and even national figures, including Fox News’ Sean Hannity and WTMJ Milwaukee host Charlie Sykes.
..."[T]he public has learned for the first time, over GAB’s objections, that GAB set up a secret system of Gmail accounts for its staffers and the prosecutors who ran the John Doe. We also know that GAB hoped its ‘illegal coordination’ theory could even extend to allow it to subpoena media figures like Charlie Sykes and Sean Hannity."
The Leftists will stop at nothing when it comes to their attacks on conservatives.
Once again, Wisconsin's mainstream media fail to get THE story.
They cannot be trusted. They're pretty much worthless. They're propagandists, not journalists.
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign has filed a federal lawsuit in Wisconsin to extend the amount of time military and overseas absentee ballots can be returned.
The federal suit came on the heels a campaign request to the state’s Government Accountability Board to extend the deadline after at least 30 Wisconsin municipalities failed to send overseas ballots 45 days before the election, which is required under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voter Act (UOCAVA). The campaign proceeded with the suit against GAB after their initial request was denied.
“Because members of the military are often stationed in remote, dangerous, frontline locations, there is a substantial likelihood that the defendants’ violations of law will prevent military voters from receiving, completing, and returning their ballots in time to have them counted,” the lawsuit filed Friday reads. “The defendants’ unlawful conduct therefore may effectively disenfranchise the very men and women who make daily sacrifices to protect our system of democratic government.”
It disgusts me that this is even an issue. A lawsuit shouldn't be necessary.
The GAB's denial of an extension is a disgrace.
I'd like Obama to weigh in on this matter. He gives his opinion on pressing issues like the difficulties between new American Idol judges Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj.
Obama should be stepping up and demanding that the GAB guarantees that the ballots of our military serving overseas be counted, extending whatever deadlines are necessary.
At least 30 Wisconsin municipalities failed to send absentee ballots to military voters before the 45 day deadline, according to former U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Anthony Principi, and he's demanding the Government Accountability Board address the problem immediately.
As reported by the website WisPolitics.com, Principi sent a letter to the GAB on Monday pointing out the failure to meet the 45 day deadline is in violation of Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voter Act.
"This violation is particularly unsettling in light of the fact that, only six months ago, a federal court entered a consent decree against Wisconsin and the Government Accountability Board for similar violations of military voting rights," wrote Principi.
Principi cited a study by the Military Postal Service Agency, which found less than 45 days is not enough time to ensure service members can receive, complete and return in time.
"Your office's violations therefore may deprive service members of their fundamental right to vote," he wrote.
This comes on top of a report by the MacIver News Service that the Federal Voter Assistance Program was providing Wisconsin service members the incorrect deadline for when their ballots must be received by for the general election.
This sloppiness by the GAB is completely unacceptable.
There is no excuse for this.
Stripping members of our MILITARY of the right to vote???
This must be made right.
It's scandalous.
It's a disgrace.
Obama should issue an executive order immediately, demanding that members of the military not be penalized for the failures of bureaucrats. Obama must mandate that their ballots are counted.
Will Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson be marching in protest over the disenfranchisement of members of our military?
Citizens not affiliated with either the recall organizations or the office holders targeted for recall this spring have found scores of problems with the petitions, but Wisconsin’s elections watchdogs have decided they will not consider any of their evidence.
GAB Director and General Counsel Kevin Kennedy said there is no process in place for accepting information from outside groups and individuals. Governor Scott Walker and the four Republican state senators against whom recall petitions were filed last month are the only parties that can contest the validity of signatures, according to Kennedy.
The GAB will not investigate or consider independently-submitted evidence of recall petition fraud. This includes circumstances wherein individuals might notify the board that their own name and forged signature were submitted.
According to the GAB, anyone concerned that their signature was fraudulently included on a recall petition, therefore, must notify not the GAB, but rather the target of the recall. In addition, they must do so by the challenge deadline if they want that signature reviewed and ultimately, possibly, struck.
Can you imagine what the outcry would be like if a board stacked with Republicans issued such a declaration?
Good grief. The shouts of "SHAME, SHAME, SHAME" would echo well beyond the borders of Wisconsin.
The GAB is so wrong on this.
Obviously, it's not an "ACCOUNTABILITY BOARD" at all.
Truly disgraceful.
________________
Mark Belling took time out of his cruise to release this statement on the "Government Accountability Board Refusing To Do Its Job":
In all my years of following Wisconsin politics, the decision by the Jim Doyle-appointed "judges" on the Government Accountability Board is the biggest disgrace I have ever seen. The GAB is making up the law as it goes along in attempt to put the fix in for the Democrat Party. The Board's statement that it will not attempt to verify petition signatures is outrageous enough. It's like a police department saying it won't investigate murder. But the board went on to say it will not accept challenges from the Verify The Recall group or, for that matter, anyone else.
This decision reflects on the lack of character of the members of the board. A Wisconsin citizen who finds thast his/her name is wrongly signed on a recall petition now has literally no recourse. Further, since, by law, Verify The Recall cannot coordinate its efforts with Governor Walker's campaign, it will not be able to share the information it has dug up. The GAB executive director, Kevin Kennedy, is a longtime Madison hack whose tenure at the State Board of Election was filled with one outrage after another. But he, and the board he reports to, are outdoing themselves here. These recall petitions are ridiculed with fraud which is precisely why the Doyle-appointed GAB won't do anything about it.
Now we know what it was like to live under Stalin, or in Iran.
There are new allegations of government workers campaigning on the taxpayer’s dime, but this time, it’s Democratic State Senator Spencer Coggs who’s in the hot seat. The allegations are that Coggs’ office workers campaigned for him while he was running for lieutenant governor.
The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board is looking into the complaint, but won’t comment on specifics. Senator Coggs, who is currently running for City of Milwaukee Treasurer is denying the allegations.
A former aide to Sen. Coggs says a staff member used a Capitol office for illegal campaigning, a charge Coggs denies.
...The allegation is that a Senate staffer created and updated a campaign website for Coggs’ lieutenant governor run in 2010. “That is absolutely false. The campaign contracted with a firm in Milwaukee, and paid a designer in Milwaukee who created it, and then updated the website,” Williams said.
...The GAB confirms the complaint was filed by Jana Williams, a former member of Coggs’ Senate staff. Williams was fired when the Democrats lost the majority and had to trim their staffs. “The Democrats lost control of the State Senate and her position was eliminated,” Williams said.
There is another twist in the story: the Coggs campaign says Jana Williams was dating, and then had a bad break up with the staffer she’s now accusing. “You never know what someone’s real motivations are, but this is a weird personal situation between her and the staffer who she is accusing, and unfortunately, she has chosen to drag the State Senator into this,” Zak Williams said.
Jay Heck is the executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin, a non-partisan organization that advocates for clean government. He says it shouldn’t matter if Williams is a disgruntled former employee, or a jilted lover. “I’ve never heard of a case where it had this type of circumstance. Whether that is a factor shouldn’t matter. The facts should stand on their own,” Heck said.
Whatever the circumstances, the charges must be taken seriously.
If DEMOCRAT Coggs and his staffers weren't engaged in wrongdoing, that will come out -- after a lengthy fishing expedition.
“In the interest of full transparency, the Board has always planned to release copies of recall petitions to anyone who requested them, and to post them online,” said Kevin Kennedy, director and general counsel. “However, we recently heard from a number of people who are concerned about their personal safety if their names and addresses are made public. As a result, our staff had to do a thorough analysis under Wisconsin’s Public Records Law. These are serious issues which must be given thorough consideration and addressed in light of the Statutes and the responsibilities of the Board.”
Kennedy said the staff has concluded, and Judge David Deininger, the Board chairperson, has concurred, that the petitions will be released under Wisconsin law, as well as a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Doe v. Reed, involving the release of referendum petitions in Washington State. That position is also supported by the Wisconsin Department of Justice. Unlike an elector’s vote, which is private and confidential, the signing of recall petition is a public process.
In addition to providing copies to requestors, the G.A.B. will continue its past practice, and put all 153,335 pages of PDF copies of the petitions online later today, Kennedy said. The PDF copies are not computer-searchable.
At least the petitions are finally posted.
The GAB's explanation for the delay is truly an embarrassment. ____________________
State elections officials plan to enter the names of all those who sign recall petitions into a new database -- a policy that will add to taxpayer costs and could delay when any recall elections would be held.
NOW, the cost to taxpayers matters???
GIVE ME A BREAK!
We have witnessed taxpayer dollars being pissed away directly because of the sore loser Leftists trying to overturn the results of the 2010 election. There's been the cost of the damage and extra police at the Capitol. There's been the cost of the ridiculous, pathetic JoAnne Kloppenburg recount.
A Scott Walker recall election has a price tag of $9 million!
Oh, but the cost of a database to assure that Wisconsin voters aren't being disenfranchised through fraud is a price too high.
CRAZY!
The decision, announced Thursday, comes after a ruling last week by Waukesha County Circuit Judge J. Mac Davis that said the state Government Accountability Board must take steps to search for duplicate names and fictitious names.
“It is a time-consuming and very costly process,” the board’s elections director, Nat Robinson, told the board.
He said the board is purchasing software that can electronically read the petitions and load the names into a database. Staffers will have to go over the database after the information is loaded because the software will misread some handwriting.
The Democratic groups trying to recall Gov. Scott Walker and other Republicans have asked an appeals court to stay Davis’ court order. But even if that happens, the board will continue with its plan to create the new database, said board attorney Mike Haas.
“Unless a court directs us otherwise, we’re going to proceed with the process…we’ve been planning,” he told the board.
A judge ruled Thursday that the state Government Accountability Board needs to take more aggressive action to vet recall signatures that are expected to be submitted in two weeks against Gov. Scott Walker and other Republican office holders.
The ruling by Waukesha County Circuit Judge J. Mac Davis came in a case filed Dec. 15 by Walker's campaign committee and Stephan Thompson, executive director of the state Republican Party, asking Davis to order the accountability board to seek out and eliminate duplicate and fictitious signatures and illegible addresses in recall petitions.
Davis, who refused to enter injunctions in the case, based his decision on his interpretation of state law, more than on equal protection arguments brought up by the Republicans. He also said that the board must take "reasonable" efforts to eliminate such signatures.
Kevin Kennedy, director and general counsel of the board, said after the hearing that his organization would have to discuss the decision to see what it needed to change in procedures already in place.
In court, Kennedy testified that entering signatures into a database to look for duplicates could take eight extra weeks for his staff, and could cost $94,000 for software and outside help.
Steven M. Biskupic, attorney for the Republicans, argued that not catching invalid signatures violated the constitutional rights to equal protection of people who chose not to sign recall petitions.
He also cited a media report that one man claimed he'd signed recall petitions 80 times, and submitted a petition from last summer's attempt to recall Sen. Jim Holperin (D-Conover), in which the accountability board allowed a "Bugs Bunny" signature to be counted. Kennedy said the signature was counted because Holperin didn't follow the proper procedures for challenging it.
In issuing his ruling, Davis said, "Counting the signature of Bugs Bunny is something only a lawyer could make seem OK."
David Buerger, elections specialist with Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board, has some explaining to do when it comes to the manner in which he conducts himself.
Buerger is an employee of this allegedly nonpartisan body, yet his very public online behavior is anything but professional and nonpartisan.
The same employee who admitted the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board would deem all recall signatures valid, even if they were signed Mickey Mouse or Adolf Hitler, has engaged in online activity that could lead some to question his impartiality.
David Buerger, an elections specialist with the GAB used his Twitter account to praise a blog posting wherein Republican State Senator Mary Lazich was called “Crazy Mary.”
“OMG! Headline winner…” Buerger tweeted last month, and then included a link to the blog post.
Just this week Buerger linked to a story about the two-year long investigation by the Democratic District Attorney in Milwaukee that may or may not involve the activities of Scott Walker’s Milwaukee County Executive staff.
“Ruh-roh… John Doe investigation on the move: ”
This doesn't exactly bolster my faith in the GAB to carry out its duties fairly.
Last night, the Maciver Institute, whose twitter handle is @MacIverWisc, retweeted Buerger’s questionable missives. This brought an immediate reaction from the elections specialist.
Buerger, who uses the Twitter handle @buergd, later blocked the MacIver Institute fro accessing his twitter feed. He does note in his twitter profile that, “My opinions are my own (not G.A.B. official).”
This is really getting crazy. This is NOT what democracy looks like.
We have to defeat these partisan hacks and keep Wisconsin on the path to prosperity.
In my opinion, Buerger is not fit to serve in his current position.
The people of Wisconsin need to have faith in the electoral process.
Right now, I'm feeling disenfranchised.
However, I'm sure Adolph Hitler and Mickey Mouse and Jim Doyle and the Leftist minions are feeling very comfortable.
Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board is getting a black eye on the national stage.
WISN's story about the signing of recall Scott Walker petitions multiple times is getting coverage across the country.
A man told 12 News that he has signed as many as 80 petitions to recall Gov. Scott Walker.
The man had the following exchange with 12 News' Kent Wainscott on Thursday:
Man: "I think I signed about 80 times."
Wainscott: "You've signed 80 petitions, you think?"
Man: "I signed a lot of them for the past two weeks. I've been seeing them at the Grand Avenue Mall. Out here by Pick 'n Save and stuff like that."
Wainscott: "Well, you know they're only going to count one of your signatures?"
Man: "Oh well. Whatever it takes to get Scott Walker out of here, I'm happy."
Wainscott: "That means signing repeatedly?"
Man: "Yeah. They cheated for Bush, so hey, I'm going to cheat to get Scott Walker out of here."
Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board in Madison polices the recall process. The Board's director said the legality of signing multiple petitions really comes down to intent.
"If a person is signing this with the intent of artificially inflating the number of signatures that are going to be turned in, or if they're signing it to argue these petitions are riddled with fraud, because anybody can do this, then they're committing fraud on the process," said Director Kevin Kennedy.
So, if someone signs a recall petition but later worries that petition might not be legit, he or she can sign another one. That's different from signing dozens of different petitions, hoping to sneak in some extra signatures, according to the director.
The latter is a practice the Democratic Party of Wisconsin said it discourages. The party's spokesman said people should sign only one petition, and he said he had not heard of any other cases of people signing dozens of petitions.
"Well, these are not credible people. They either have mental illnesses or they're up to no good," said Graeme Zielinski, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. "They're up to criminal activity, and if they are up to criminal activity, they should be prosecuted."
...The Democrats said they're working to weed out repeat signatures before submitting them to the GAB. The Board may not necessarily catch the duplicates.
The GAB director said, according to state law, it's up to the officeholder to catch duplicates. So, in this case, it will be up to Walker's campaign and Republicans to catch any duplicate recall signatures turned in.
Yeah, right. The Democrats are working to weed out repeat signatures. Sure.
Zielinski just called this man mentally ill or "up to no good."
That's not very nice of Zielinski to go on the record disparaging one of his good soldiers. Does Zielinski consider union members mentally ill? I think Wisconsin has a serious outbreak of mental illness.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin issued this press release:
WISN Channel 12 has reported breaking news regarding claims that a man has signed the recall Walker petitions 80 times.
This update comes on the heels of the Government Accountability Board readily admitting they have no process in place by which to check and discard duplicate signatures. Rather, the GAB said the burden of checking for duplicate signatures will fall upon Governor Walker. At the same time, the GAB has stated that the union special-interests collecting the recall petitions will be expected to self-police the collection of duplicate signatures. As of yet, Democrat and pro-labor organizations affiliated with the recall effort have not disclosed a process to identify and discard duplicate signatures.
"This type of behavior calls the entire recall process into question," said Ben Sparks, Communications Director for the Republican Party of Wisconsin. "Incidents such as this are exactly why we formed the Recall Integrity Center, which is a website that allows individuals to report instances of misconduct and fraud. The issue of duplicate signatures is a recurring problem that needs to be addressed, and the Republican Party of Wisconsin will be looking into the matter further."
Liberal interest groups affiliated with the recall effort have actively encouraged individuals to sign the recall petitions multiple times. One Wisconsin Now, a liberal non-profit, pushed a memo that actively encouraged this type of behavior from petition circulators.
"It's a little too late for the Democrats to say they don't condone this type of behavior," Sparks continued, "when activists affiliated with the recall effort are actively encouraging individuals to sign the recall petitions more than once. Liberal special-interests have shown they are willing to stoop to any level to force this recall effort on Wisconsin families, who elected Governor Walker with an overwhelming majority."
The recall effort is an embarrasment.
The Democrat Party of Wisconsin is an embarrassment.
The GAB is an embarrassment.
People are encouraged to sign recall petitions early and often. There are no consequences for wrongdoing committed by opponents of Scott Walker.
Things are really screwed up in Wisconsin when a man is charged for scribbling on a recall petition but a woman making a death threat against Governor Scott Walker is ignored.
Regan Cowan posted online that she wants Walker dead.
A death threat against Governor Walker was removed from Facebook on Monday, almost three full days after it was initially posted.
“Earlier this morning, Capitol Police became aware of an online death threat directed towards Governor Walker,” said Chief Charles Tubbs in a statement issued this afternoon. “Capitol Police takes any threat directed towards those who visit or work in the Capitol seriously, and Capitol Police investigators have identified and interviewed the responsible individual. Capitol Police does not generally comment on specific security issues.”
Tubbs issued the statement after an inquiry made by a MacIver News Service reporter.
“Rather than recall him… Can we kill him instead? Just curious,” wrote Regan Cowan on the Recall Walker Kick Off Rally event page on Facebook Friday afternoon.
When someone responded with “He’s signed a bill allowing conceal to carry IN the capitol…..Someone just might get away with it!!!” Cowan then posted: “I’m game.”
Cowan wasn't charged with anything for her threat.
No problem.
Keep up the good work, Regan!
But when Jeffery Karnitz scribbles on a Walker recall petition, he's charged with a FELONY.
A West Bend man told police he intentionally scribbled over petitions seeking the recall of Gov. Scott Walker with the hopes it would "screw up the petition."
But when Jeffery Karnitz handed the defaced petition back to a recall volunteer, she told him, "I hope you know that's a felony," and from then, he told police, "I kind of kicked myself in the ass."
On Thursday, Karnitz, 30, was indeed charged with a felony, "Election fraud - falsifying or destroying nomination papers, recall petitions, etc." -- which is punishable by up to 1 1/2 years in prison, two years extended supervision and $10,000 fine.
Karnitz should not have defaced the petitions. I'm not making any excuses for him.
BUT- Cowan should not have been able to issue a death threat against the Governor with impunity.
WISN Channel 12 has reported breaking news regarding claims that a man has signed the recall Walker petitions 80 times.
This update comes on the heels of the Government Accountability Board readily admitting they have no process in place by which to check and discard duplicate signatures. Rather, the GAB said the burden of checking for duplicate signatures will fall upon Governor Walker. At the same time, the GAB has stated that the union special-interests collecting the recall petitions will be expected to self-police the collection of duplicate signatures. As of yet, Democrat and pro-labor organizations affiliated with the recall effort have not disclosed a process to identify and discard duplicate signatures.
"This type of behavior calls the entire recall process into question," said Ben Sparks, Communications Director for the Republican Party of Wisconsin. "Incidents such as this are exactly why we formed the Recall Integrity Center, which is a website that allows individuals to report instances of misconduct and fraud. The issue of duplicate signatures is a recurring problem that needs to be addressed, and the Republican Party of Wisconsin will be looking into the matter further."
Liberal interest groups affiliated with the recall effort have actively encouraged individuals to sign the recall petitions multiple times. One Wisconsin Now, a liberal non-profit, pushed a memo that actively encouraged this type of behavior from petition circulators.
"It's a little too late for the Democrats to say they don't condone this type of behavior," Sparks continued, "when activists affiliated with the recall effort are actively encouraging individuals to sign the recall petitions more than once. Liberal special-interests have shown they are willing to stoop to any level to force this recall effort on Wisconsin families, who elected Governor Walker with an overwhelming majority."
Transcript:
Man: "I think I signed about 80 times."
Wainscott: "You've signed 80 petitions, you think?"
Man: "I signed a lot of them for the past two weeks. I've been seeing them at the Grand Avenue Mall. Out here by Pick 'n Save and stuff like that."
Wainscott: "Well, you know they're only going to count one of your signatures?"
Man: "Oh well. Whatever it takes to get Scott Walker out of here, I'm happy."
Wainscott: "That means signing repeatedly?"
Man: "Yeah. They cheated for Bush, so hey, I'm going to cheat to get Scott Walker out of here."
If you support Scott Walker and commit some wrongdoing, yes, you've kind of kicked yourself in the ass.
If you're against Scott Walker, you can do anything. ANYTHING.
This video was taken last Friday when the Occupy Milwaukee goons and loons shut down the North Ave. bridge.
Clearly, the girls signing the petitions to recall Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch do not look like people of voting age. They have no idea who Rebecca Kleefisch is.
Do they look 18? I bet they went trick-or-treating a few weeks back.
What is this adult doing, giving a cigarette to a kid? Cigarettes for signatures?
Here's the guy collecting signatures. He should be easy to identify. He has a distinctive smile.
This guy explains how to fill out the recall form.
These are greats shots because the people in them can be seen so clearly.
What good reporting by a bystander! He puts the professionals to shame.
It's terrific that we can get this news via the Internet. The mainstream media filter is off. Their control is gone.
The media in Milwaukee are "willing partners," like TMJ4, with the unions and the Democrats.
We saw how they covered the protests in Madison at the beginning of 2011. I'm not surprised their reporters aren't doing some investigating. The news, like this video, literally has to be handed over to them before they'll acknowledge it. They aren't finding it because they aren't looking.
I'd like to hear Milwaukee D.A. John Chisholm comment on the video.
What does the Democrat Party of Wisconsin have to say?
Tom Barrett - Is he around? Any comment?
The GAB should make a statement as well.
The fact is I don't trust officials in Milwaukee to fight fraud when it comes to our elections. _______________
A conservative group is questioning whether someone under the age of 18 has signed a petition to recall Gov. Scott Walker.
But a spokesman of the state Democratic Party provided photos to the Journal Sentinel of the woman holding an identification card showing she is 20 years old.
The group Media Trackers released footage of the young person and a friend signing the petition Thursday in Milwaukee and said one of them appeared to be under 18, which would make her ineligible to sign the petition. The footage has been popping up on conservative web sites.
Graeme Zielinski, a spokesman for the Democratic Party, released photos of the two holding their IDs that say they are 20 and 22 years old.
“The idea this is fraud is a lie that is being disseminated in a coordinated effort,” Zielinski said. “They obviously didn’t do basic fact checking.”
Wow.
They look really young for 20 and 22. It's hard to believe, but Zielinski's photo of them holding their IDs settles it.
We all know there's no such thing as a fake ID.
I wonder how the Democrats were able to contact the women so quickly. Did the women contact the Dems? I wonder how this played out.
I think it's interesting that the women have IDs.
I guess the law requiring Wisconsin voters to present photo ID doesn't hurt them.
With the signature gathering phase of the Recall Walker effort only three days old, a flaw in the security of the system has been discovered. Under Wisconsin law there are no privacy protections for those who sign a recall petition. Those who sign a recall petition must give their name, address, and the date that they signed the document. That information could be given or sold to any political or business entity wanting a list of individuals who are opposed to Governor Scott Walker or are likely opposed to any of the reforms that he has put in place.
More ominously, someone could use the guise of the recall to gather information from complete strangers and then, with no intention of actually turning the petitions in, use that data to stalk individuals with the intent of carrying out a crime. Petition circulators are not required to register with the GAB or be certified as legitimate circulators. This stands in contrast to the practice of some municipalities to require individuals to receive certification as special registration deputies in order to register people to vote.
When asked if there was anything to prevent political opponents, potential crooks, or businesses from lifting information off of recall petitions and using it for private, malicious or criminal purposes, the Government Accountability Board admitted that no protections exist.
“There is no restriction on how recall petition information may be used,” Reid Magney, spokesman for the GAB told Media Trackers on Thursday morning.
I'm glad I don't have to worry about this right now.
I won't be signing any recall petition for Scott Walker or Rebecca Kleefisch or any of the other Republican targets of Big Labor.
Still, in terms of the future, it's troubling to think that personal information could be lifted from the petitions for malicious purposes. It's also concerning that "[p]etition circulators are not required to register with the GAB or be certified as legitimate circulators."
Anyone on the street could claim to be gathering signatures with no intent of turning them in as part of a recall effort.
Creepy.
Here's some advice:
Before signing a recall petition, Wisconsin citizens would do well to check the credibility of the circulator while remembering that there is nothing to prevent someone from using their personal information for a malicious or annoying purpose. Individuals looking for easy targets of criminal endeavors could find a wealth of information on recall petitions while annoying businesses and unscrupulous scammers could save themselves a lot of time and effort by simply abusing the information made public by petition signers.
Paperwork to recall Gov. Scott Walker has been filed with state elections officials.
The state Government Accountability Board said the request was filed Friday, the first possible date of the recall. To succeed in forcing a recall election of the Republican governor, organizers must gather 540,000 signatures in 60 days.
The petition was filed by David Brandt of Muskego in Waukesha County and the "Close Friends to Recall Walker" committee. Brandt said in the government filing that he was registering a recall committee to "fulfill my friend's last request."
The state Democratic Party is starting its recall Walker effort on Nov. 15.
But since the petition has been filed now, Walker can immediately begin receiving unlimited political donations from supporters to use for certain specific spending.
A phone message left at Brandt's home was not immediately returned. No one with his name and address showed up in a database of state campaign contributors.
Graeme Zielinski, a spokesman for the state Democratic Party, questioned whether Brandt was a true opponent of Walker. He said that a Democratic Party voter database suggested that Brandt might lean Republican.
Political parties keep such databases of voters' party identification to help them target get out the vote efforts. Zielinski said the database used such information as whether a voter has voted in a Republican primary.
A spokeswoman for the state Republican Party had no immediate comment.
Blah, blah, blah.
Zielinski questions whether Brandt is a true opponent of Walker.
It doesn't matter.
The fact is the Democrats are going full speed ahead with their effort to recall Walker.
The taxpayer dollars that are being wasted because of these recall elections makes me sick.
All the outside money, the Big Labor influence, the whole mess really bugs me.
There is no such thing as being elected to a term in office in Wisconsin.
If you're a Leftist and a Republican or a conservative wins an election, the assumption is the election results are irrelevant.
Overturn the election.
The Democrats have many differences with Walker. They want to tax and spend and continue Jim Doyle's disastrous policies. They believe in entitlements which serve to enslave the people to the government.
Naturally, the Leftists don't like what Walker is doing, even though his policies are WORKING.
Just because they don't like Walker is no reason to drag the state through another recall election.
The people spoke on November 2, 2010, Election Day.
We elected Scott Walker, a Republican State Assembly and State Senate, a Republican majority in the Wisconsin U.S. House of Representatives delegation, and Ron Johnson, conservative Republican, to the U.S. Senate. (Yes, we fired the Leftist darling, Russ Feingold.)
Recall elections to undo that is an abuse of the system.
The state Government Accountability Board said on Wednesday it found probable cause to believe that Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus violated the state law requiring county clerks to post all returns on election night, but concluded that the violation in the April election was not willful and therefore did not constitute criminal misconduct.
Nickolaus became the focus of formal complaints and national attention after she failed to include city of Brookfield votes in her unofficial election night results in the April 5 Supreme Court race between incumbent Justice David Prosser and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg, an assistant attorney general.
...The Government Accountability Board on Wednesday released the independent investigation report by former Dane County prosecutor Timothy Verhoff, as well as a GAB staff report and related documents.
Nickolaus was not immediately available for comment Wednesday. Her office said Nickolaus would issue a written statement in response to the GAB findings by the end of the day.
Included in the released documents was a letter from Government Accountability Board Chair Thomas H. Barland to Nickolaus that was critical of her actions and noted that she undermined public trust.
"Your failure to post election returns at the reporting unit level on Election Night led candidates for the office of Supreme Court Justice, Wisconsin voters and members of the media at the state and national level to believe the election for State Supreme Court Justice was within 200 votes when in fact unofficial returns would have shown a difference of more than 7,000 votes out of approximately 1.5 million votes cast," Barland wrote.
"This action has significantly undermined public confidence in the conduct of elections in Wisconsin and Waukesha County. As a result state and local election officials, and you in particular, will have to regain the trust of the Wisconsin electorate in the administration of elections in Wisconsin and Waukesha County," Barland states.
The board ordered Nickolaus to follow the law and have procedures in place by the Feb. 21 primary election and subsequent elections "to ensure accountability and transparency in your actions," according to the letter.
Democrats must be disappointed, but there's still hope.
Maybe someone will accuse Nickolaus of putting a political opponent in a chokehold.
Two events held in Milwaukee today aimed at rewarding absentee voters could run afoul of Wisconsin law a state election official said today.
The group, Wisconsin Jobs Now! describes itself as a “coalition of community groups, neighborhood associations, faith based organizations and labor united in an effort to bring good jobs to Wisconsin now.”
At two events in the city Monday, Wisconsin Jobs Now! offered free BBQ and prize drawings to people who participate in their absentee voting drive. They promoted the events on their website, action.wisconsinjobsnow.org.
Wisconsin statutes forbid “election bribery,” under 12.11. This includes giving or offering anything of value in exchange for going to the polls.
Steve Pickett, an elections specialist with the Government Accountability Board, told the MacIver News Service that whether this event is legal or not could come down to timing.
“If they walk in with a sticker that says ‘I voted ‘that’s one thing, but if they eat before they vote that’s a problem,” Pickett said. “It’s still a questionable practice one way or the other.”
...[The Wisconsin Jobs Now!] website has been highly critical of Republican Senator Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), and in addition to the get out the vote parties, the organization has been organizing and shuttling voters to Milwaukee’s city hall.
Earlier on Monday, the Republican Party of Wisconsin filed a complaint with the GAB alleging illegal coordination between Citizen Action of Wisconsin and the campaign of Sandy Pasch (D-Millwaukee), Darling’s challenger.
The RPW complaint comes on the revelation by Media Trackers that Pasch sits on the board of directors of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. The Republican Party asked the Government Accountability Board to conduct investigation into whether Sandy Pasch’s membership on the Board of Directors for Citizen Action of Wisconsin violated Section 11.06(7) of the Wisconsin statutes concerning illegal coordination between candidates and independent expenditure organizations.
Apparently, the Leftists and union thugs don't have much faith in Sandy Pasch to deliver.
If they did, if they had confidence in her, there would be no need to engage in these questionable, possibly illegal, tactics.
Pasch's campaign is steeped in corruption.
In theMilwaukee Journal Sentinel's coverage of the "block parties," the events are given a jaw-droppingly ridiculous spin.
State election authorities are questioning whether a liberal group broke the law by offering both free food and free rides to vote in a hotly contested Senate recall election.
Although no formal complaint had reached the state Government Accountability Board by Monday afternoon, a spokesman for the agency said it would not be legal to combine free food and transportation to the polls in the same event - even if, as the organization contends, people could take the food without boarding the buses.
Local law enforcement authorities are reportedly looking into the get-out-the-vote "block parties."
Five such parties were sponsored by Wisconsin Jobs Now, a coalition of community and labor groups led by the Service Employees International Union. The coalition describes itself as a nonpartisan organization, although its blog posts have been highly critical of state Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), who is defending her seat against Rep. Sandy Pasch (D-Whitefish Bay) in the Aug. 9 recall vote.
Wisconsin Jobs Now held three parties last week and two Monday, all on Milwaukee's northwest side. Each party offered free food, prizes such as t-shirts and stuffed toys, face-painting for children, drawings for school backpacks - and free shuttles to Milwaukee City Hall, where voters could cast absentee ballots in the 8th Senate District contest.
Janet Veum, a spokeswoman for Wisconsin Jobs Now, described the events as "a celebration of voting," aimed at making it easier to vote for low-income and minority groups who might face more challenges under the state's new photo identification law.
...State law prohibits anyone from offering a voter any inducement to vote or not vote. Veum said her group believed it was complying with the law because no one was required to take the rides or vote to get the food and prizes.
But "that's a distinction without a difference," said Reid Magney, spokesman for the accountability board. He said it was legal to offer rides to the polls, or free food at picnics to talk about issues, but not in the same event.
Magney said his agency had not received any complaints about the parties and that enforcing the law would be up to the Milwaukee County district attorney's office.
A "celebration of voting"?
Oh, good grief!
Clearly, the "block parties" were staged as an inducement to vote.
This is sickening.
Such "inducements" are utilized by the Leftists again and again here in Wisconsin, probably because they know they can get away with the tactics.
Milwaukee- Media Trackers filed complaints this morning with the Government Accountability Board and the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office alleging illegal election and electioneering activities on the part of Wisconsin Jobs Now!
"We are confident that the GAB and the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office will take our complaints serious," remarked Brian Sikma, communications director for Media Trackers. "The evidence that we reported on our website and that our sources gave us all point to multiple violations of election law on the part of Wisconsin Jobs Now! It is time for Wisconsin Jobs Now! to be held accountable for such flagrant violations of the law."
"Because the actions of Wisconsin Jobs Now! are so despicable, we are calling on the Sandy Pasch and Alberta Darling campaigns to also file complaints with the GAB and the Milwaukee County DA's office," stated Sikma. "What took place yesterday is an affront to both campaigns and, more importantly, to the voters in Senate District 8." Sikma continued saying, "If the candidates truly wish to state their frustration with these illegal actions and distance themselves from such tactics, they should file complaints calling for a formal GAB investigation of Wisconsin Jobs Now!"
WisconsinJobs Now! on the afternoon of August 1st hosted two events in northern Milwaukee County where voters were given a free barbeque chicken dinner and raffle tickets in exchange for showing up to vote. Participants were transported to the Milwaukee City Hall in vans with Wisconsin Jobs Now! logos on the side. Once at City Hall, volunteers wearing Wisconsin Jobs Now! t-shirts stood inside the Milwaukee Election Commission office and explained how the voting would work. Media Trackers secured first-hand reports and evidence of these activities.
The MacIver Institute reports that big money for the recall elections is flowing into Wisconsin from national liberal groups and individuals.
In the first eight days of July nearly three million dollars has been sent to Wisconsin by national liberal organizations and individuals, with more than two million dollars coming from large national las key operatives coming from out of state.
Big Labor has now sent more than six million dollars to finance recall efforts in Wisconsin according to a review of campaign finance reports conducted by the MacIver News Service. The figures only account for disbursements reported to the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board; these organizations do not have to report expenditures made for efforts to communicate with their own membership.
The contributions can come in the form of monetary contributions like wire transfers and checks or in-kind contributions. Wisconsin statutes define “in-kind” contributions as a disbursement by a contributor to procure a thing of value or service for the benefit of a registrant who authorized the disbursement.
All told, Big Labor has spent more than $6,419,000 in the recall efforts this year, having delivered $2.2 million to the state since July 1.
The AFL-CIO sent $3,884,170 to the “We are Wisconsin” Super PAC in six monetary disbursements since May, the last one being for $778,431 on July 5.
As previously reported by MNS, The deceptively-named “We are Wisconsin” effort has a decidedly non-Wisconsin infrastructure, with well in excess of 90% of its funds and many of its key operatives coming from out of state.
I don't like the fact that national groups are pouring millions of dollars into Wisconsin.
This is our state government we're talking about, not the U.S. Senate.
Will all this outside influence and cash alter the outcomes of the recall elections?
I don't think so.
True, Big Labor has big influence with Democrats, including Obama.
But all that matters is how the people of Wisconsin vote.
The big money and organizers from out-of-state didn't get JoAnne Kloppenburg elected. They failed.
Next month, Wisconsinites have to go to the polls again to make sure that out-of-state, Leftist interests don't determine our future.
Wisconsin taxpayers need to send a message to Big Labor and the other national Leftist groups infiltrating our state.
The Democratic Party, which supplied the information on the Democrats' campaign finance totals, did not furnish details on where the money came from or was spent. That likely will be available Tuesday from the state Government Accountability Board, which has not yet posted the full reports.
Gee, I wonder where the Dems' big bucks came from.
The state Government Accountability Board voted Wednesday to set recall elections for three Democratic state senators, bringing to nine the number of senators facing recall elections.
The board acknowledged Democrats' claims of fraud by paid petition circulators, but disallowed only about 230 additional signatures collected by just one of the circulators - not nearly enough to throw out any of the recalls.
Democrats Dave Hansen of Green Bay, Jim Holperin of Conover and Robert Wirch of Pleasant Prairie all face elections July 19, a week after six Republican senators face recalls. The election date for the Republicans was set last week.
...The nine Senate recalls could change control of that house, where the GOP has a 19-14 advantage.
Tuesday: Filing deadline for recalls against Republicans
June 21: Filing deadline for recalls against Democrats
July 12: Election in the Republican recalls (primaries if necessary)
July 19: Election in the Democratic recalls (primaries if necessary)
Aug. 9: General election if needed in Republican recalls
Aug. 16: General election if needed in Democratic recalls
Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg said Tuesday that she was conceding the Supreme Court race to Justice David Prosser, ending what had been a contentious campaign that culminated in a rare statewide recount.
Kloppenburg made the concession at a Madison news conference just over a week after the state's Government Accountability Board reported that final count numbers showed Prosser with 7,006 more votes.
She said she had run a campaign that was respectful, honest and fair.
Her decision to concede is expected to pave the way for Prosser to begin a new, 10-year term on Aug. 1.
If Kloppenburg had challenged the recount, Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson would have had to name a reserve judge to hear Kloppenburg's court challenge. Court observers say it is likely that Abrahamson and the reserve judge would move as quickly as possible to consider the appeal.
Kloppenburg asked for the taxpayer-financed recount - the first statewide recount in two decades - after losing by 7,316 votes in the April 5 election. Waukesha County, a key stronghold for Prosser, finished its recount last.
Kloppenburg's team had said in advance of Tuesday's decision that they would analyze the election evidence and the law before making their decision.
Though the April 5 election was officially nonpartisan, the campaign had all the feel of a partisan race: conservatives tended to support Prosser, while liberals backed Kloppenburg.
Wisconsinites knew Prosser was the winner weeks and weeks ago. We knew that before hundreds and hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars were pissed away.
Today, JoAnne Kloppenburg conceded, she gave in to reality and admitted that she lost the election.
However, she did it in the most graceless way imaginable, whining about the mountain of "anomalies and irregularities and more" that allegedly tainted the results.
I suppose the whining was necessary to justify her demand to put the state through the idiotic recount.
I'm surprised her announcement came as early in the day as it did. I expected her to remain true to form and speak at around 4:00 PM, waiting until the last minute to meet the deadline on challenging the recount results.
Did Kloppenburg think the late morning announcement would make her appear more reasonable and less politically-motivated than staging another late afternoon drama?
It didn't.
I thought it was interesting that during the Q & A of her news conference she answered a question that wasn't asked.
Kloppenburg stated that she wasn't a union puppet, that she made her own decisions and was not doing the bidding of the union thugs.
Maybe she's not their puppet. Maybe her commitment to their extreme Leftist agenda is deeply entrenched.
Whatever.
Bottom line: She was content with sticking it to Wisconsin taxpayers for her ridiculous statewide recount but was not willing to foot the bill to challenge those results.
She did concede.
The election is over but this Kloppenburg news conference will live on in Wisconsin political history.
Let it be a lesson to other candidates.
"Wisconsin voters have spoken and I am grateful for, and humbled by, their confidence and trust."
"I'm ecstatic. My supporters are ecstatic, and I'm looking forward to becoming a justice on August 1st."
"We ran a campaign that was focused on being positive and respectful and, and winning; and we did win, and we're confident that the margin will hold."
"You know, the numbers showed that we won and we are gratified to have that victory in hand."
State elections officials on Monday certified the results of the recount of the April 5 election for state Supreme Court, declaring that Justice David Prosser has been re-elected to another 10-year term on the court by 7,004 votes.
"I look forward to taking the oath of office and continuing to serve in a fair and independent manner as a member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court," Prosser said a statement.
Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg asked for the recount after narrowly losing to Prosser.
She now has the option of suing over the results if she wants to contest the election. Any legal action must be started by May 31.
Kloppenburg campaign manager Melissa Mulliken last week said Kloppenburg would spend the coming days deciding what to do. Kloppenburg has portrayed the election as including widespread anomalies.
In certifying the recount, Government Accountability Board Chairman Thomas Barland disputed that characterization.
“It was not a surprise that minor mistakes were discovered, investigated and corrected,” he said. “This happens in all elections.”
It's time to pull out the JoAnne "I'm Ecstatic" Kloppenburg victory speech.
Kloppenburg's decision to declare victory was one of the worst moves ever.
It showed she lacks any sense of good judgment and possesses no gravitas whatsoever.
Now, with the certified results of the recount essentially the same as the certified results of the election, Kloppenburg has another decision to make.
Will she and her allies continue to stick it to the taxpayers and drag down the state of Wisconsin?
Will she obstruct the will of the people?
Does Kloppenburg have the decency to finally concede?
If her past behavior is any indication, then no, she won't concede.
It will be beyond disgraceful if Kloppenburg sues, in effect attempting to disenfranchise over 7,000 voters in the hope of manufacturing a victory.
Bottom line: Kloppenburg's concession speech is long, long overdue.
If she won't concede, let's hope she's clueless enough to flee the state, thinking that would be an appropriate way to handle her defeat. _________________
STATEMENT OF SUPREME COURT JUSTICE DAVID PROSSER, JR:
"I am grateful that the final results of the April 5th election have been confirmed today. I want to thank the good people of Wisconsin for their confidence in me. I look forward to taking the oath of office and continuing to serve in a fair and independent manner as a member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
I also want to thank the literally hundreds of local election officials and volunteers across the state's 72 counties who spent thousands of hours of their time in this recount. Their dedication went well beyond their normal "call of duty" and I know the state's residents who they serve share my appreciation for their great efforts in producing an accurate final result."
Will Kloppenburg challenge the "accurate final result"?
"And my job is to shut other white people down when they want to interrupt."
"We have to, at the DNC, provide training. We have to teach them how to communicate, how to be sensitive, and how to shut their mouths if they're white."
"Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners, and if we kick 'em all out, you'll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts."
"When I would deny that there was a significant racist component in some of the politics on our side, it was because the people I hung out with were certainly not. When suddenly, this rock is turned over, there is this—'Oh shit, did I not see that?'"
----------------------------
"In any other scenario, Hillary Clinton's lying about her emails, and her pay-for-play relationship with the Clinton Foundation would be disqualifying issues. The only reason they're not disqualifying is because Donald Trump is a fundamentally more repellent, dishonest figure."
"I made a mistake in recalling the events of twelve years ago... I said I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft."
"I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012. I might look at the constitution of South Africa. That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, had an independent judiciary. It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done."
"The death of Andrew Breitbart disproves the adage that only the good die young."
--JULIAN BOND
"The National Institute of Health has said that it is a danger to women's health and safety of their families that for 30 years to be exposed to the prospects of pregnancy."
"Why did- Couldn't the President have said at that moment, way back in December of last year, 'no game playing. No hostage-taking. No terrorizing this country with the debt ceiling. I'm not going to negotiate with you guys. You can't play it that way.' Could he have done that?"
"I remember distinctly an image of--we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at [Obama's] pant leg and his perfectly creased pant, and I'm thinking, a) he's going to be president and b) he'll be a very good president."
--DAVID BROOKS
"I feel like calling her back and smackin' her around."
"[I]f you go back to the year 2000, when we had an obvious disaster and - and saw that our voting process needed refinement, and we did that in the America Votes Act and made sure that we could iron out those kinks, now you have the Republicans, who want to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws and literally - and very transparently - block access to the polls to voters who are more likely to vote Democratic candidates than Republican candidates. And it's nothing short of that blatant."
--DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ
"This is probably one of the worst times we've seen because the numbers of people elected to Congress. I went through this as co-chair of the arts caucus. In '94 people were elected simply to come here to kill the National Endowment for the Arts. Now they’re here to kill women."
"The protesters have proven today that they‘re not going away. It was a pretty rough night last night. You can imagine if people said, well, we just can‘t fight the power. Instead, this morning, they came by tens, by hundreds, by thousands. By midday today, it was easily more than 10,000, perhaps as many as 15,000 people on the square here in Madison. Not organized by anyone, just grassroots citizens who came out just like the Minutemen in 1776."
--JOHN NICHOLS
"They're sitting on the money, they're using it for their own -- they're putting it someplace else with no interest in helping you with your life, with that money. We've allowed them to take that. That's not theirs, that's a national resource, that's ours. We all have this -- we all benefit from this or we all suffer as a result of not having it. I think we need to go back to taxing these people at the proper rates."
"Why don't we just raise the taxes and let these folks have their collective bargaining, have their union representation and go back to their jobs? Raise the taxes on the wealthy."
"So I would urge my Republican colleagues, no matter how strongly they feel -- you know, we have three branches of government. We have a House. We have a Senate. We have a president. And all three of us are going to have to come together and give some, but it is playing with fire to risk the shutting down of the government."
"I'm Rebecca Kleefisch. I performed fellatio on all the talk show hosts in Milwaukee. And they endorsed me and that's how I became lieutenant governor."
"[Military leaders] tell us that childhood obesity isn’t just a public health issue; they tell us that it is not just an economic threat -- it is a national security threat as well."
"[Obama] has to realize that Mitch McConnell has virtually said so that politically he wants to cut out his heart and throw his liver to the dogs."
--DAN RATHER
"And the instructions are not to improvise a comedy sketch, but to elect a group of unqualified, unstable individuals who will do what they are told, in exchange for money and power, and march this nation as far backward as they can get, backward to Jim Crow, or backward to the breadlines of the '30s, or backward to hanging union organizers, or backward to the trusts and the robber barons.
"Result: the Tea Party. Vote backward, vote Tea Party. And if you are somehow indifferent to what is planned for next Tuesday, it is nothing short of an attempted use of democracy to end this democracy."
"I gotta wonder when people are gonna start wearing uniforms. I mean they've got an army out there in Alaska of militia people. You've got these guys going around acting like street thugs. I mean it isn't far from what we saw in the thirties, where all of a sudden, political parties started showing up in uniform."
"[Sharron Angle] is a moron on top of being evil...
I'd like to see her do this ad in the South Bronx. Come here, bitch. Come to New York and do it. I'm not praying for her. She's going to hell. She's going to hell, this bitch."
"So people have been hurting and I understand that. And it doesn't give them comfort or solace for me to tell them, you know, but for me, we'd be in a worldwide depression."
"And to play Dick Cheney, all I had to do was find my Dick Cheney. And you can find all the villainy in the world in your own heart, and that's what an actor's job is. I always say to kids, inside you is Hitler and Jesus. And you got to find the appropriate person and bring them out."
"Because I live in the District of Columbia which is so predominantly Democratic, I am a registered Democrat. But I am an avowed neutral. And to put that into practice, I take my young daughter into the voting booth and she votes for me. She's now 14. We've been doing this since she was about age 4. She's now quite informed."
"Sarah Palin's an idiot. Come on. This is a remarkably, stunningly, jaw-droppingly incompetent and mean woman."
"The Democrats may have moved into the center, but the Republicans have moved into a mental institution."
--AARON SORKIN
"Perhaps the greatest threat of all is the undermining of our Constitution and the systematic attack against the inalienable rights of the citizens of this nation, rights that are guaranteed by our Constitution. At the vanguard of this insidious attack is the Tea Party. This band of misguided citizens is moving perilously close to achieving villainous ends."
"Ah, the Tea Party, the nativist bed-wetters who somehow control our national dialogue. Yes, I call them the Pee Party, Jay, because they're always peeing in their pants about something. They're just, they're afraid of a mosque being built in New York. They're afraid of guns. You know, they think Obama, who like every other pussy Democrat has never said a single word about gun control, but they are very sure that he and his Negro army are coming after their guns.
You know what? If you think that he's coming after your guns, you need to get out of your chat room and have your house tested for lead. He's not coming after your guns or your Bible or your fishing pole or your chewing tobacco."
"That's a trade-off society is making because of very, very high medical costs, and a lack of willingness to say, you know, is spending a million dollars on that last three months of life for that patient, would it be better not to lay off those ten teachers and to make that trade-off in medical costs. But that;s called the 'Death Panel' and you're not supposed to have that discussion."
"[If Rush Limbaugh suffered a heart attack in my presence, I would] laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out. I never knew I had this much hate in me. But he deserves it."
--SARAH SPITZ
"You want freedom, you going to have to kill some crackers. You going to have to kill some of their babies."
"If this was Texas, which is the state that, that is directly on the border with Mexico, and they were calling for a measure like this, saying that they had a major issue with, you know, with undocumented people flooding their borders, I would say I would have to look twice at this.
"But this is a state that is a ways removed from the border. And, um, it just, it doesn't make sense to me that when you google this subject, if you put in 'Arizona S.B. 1070,' that you see a picture of the governor of Arizona meeting with President Obama in May of 2010. If you have direct linkage to the president, there are already National Guard troops on the border in Arizona."
"Tell [the Jews] to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. It's not German. It's not Poland. [The Jews] can go home. Poland. Germany."
--HELEN THOMAS
"After the last eight years, it's good to have a president that knows what a library is."
--PAUL McCARTNEY
"By the way, I just want to point out I'm wearing my splash shield because I was told I was going to be in the splash zone (during Harry Smith's colonoscopy on live TV)."
--KATIE COURIC
"And that Word is, we have to give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the values of the Word."
----------------------------
"Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance or that people could start a business and be entrepreneurial and take risk, but not job loss because of a child with asthma or someone in the family is bipolar—you name it, any condition — is job-locking."
--NANCY PELOSI
"Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as 'yellow, slant-eyed dogs' that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what's going on today?"
--TOM HANKS
"The 'White Right' is trying to set Barack up to be assassinated.... Here are Christians praying for God to kill Barack Obama."
--LOUIS FARRAKHAN
"I refuse to accept the notion that the United States of America is not going to lead the world economically throughout the 20th Century."
--JOE BIDEN
"Obama's critics keep blasting him for Chicago-style politics. So, fine. Channel your inner Al Capone and go gangsta against your foes. Let 'em know that if they aren't with you, they are against you, and will pay the price."
--ROLAND MARTIN
"Martha Coakley is running to fill the rest of Ted Kennedy's term, and her opponent is a far-right tea-bagger Republican."
--CHUCK SCHUMER
"I tell you what, if I lived in Massachusetts, I'd try to vote ten times. I don't know if they'd let me or not, but I'd try to. Yeah, that's right, I'd cheat to keep these bastards out. I would. 'Cause that's exactly what they are."
--ED SCHULTZ
"We also see how revved up the tea baggers are at the thought of hijacking health care reform and every chance we have at making progress in Washington."
--JOHN KERRY
"A few years ago, this guy (Obama) would have been getting us coffee."
--BILL CLINTON
"I didn't realize I had written a column defending Roman Polanski and minimized his crime - are you sure it was me? I mean, I? There is, apparently, more to this crime than it would seem, and it may sound like a hollow defense, but in Hollywood I am not sure a 13-year-old is really a 13-year-old."
--TOM SHALES
"Joe Wilson yelled 'You lie!' at a president who didn't. But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!"
--MAUREEN DOWD
"One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game... During the 7th inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."
--DAVID LETTERMAN
"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life."
--SONIA SOTOMAYOR
"We all considered sexual abuse of minors as a moral evil, but had no understanding of its criminal nature."
--REMBERT WEAKLAND, Archbishop of Milwaukee 1977- 2002
"You know, you might want to look into this, [President Obama], because I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker, but he was so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight."
"Rush Limbaugh -- 'I hope the country fails.' I hope his kidneys fail."
----------------------------
"[Obama] told me I did a great job. The first lady said the same thing. I got a 'well done' from the president, I'm on cloud nine."
--WANDA SYKES
"Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less."
--COLIN POWELL
"[Tea Party goers are] just a bunch of wimpy, whiny, weasels who don't love their country."
--PAUL BEGALA
"I wouldn't want [gay marriage] to go to the United States Supreme Court now because that homophobe Antonin Scalia has too many votes on this current court."
--BARNEY FRANK
"Going forward, my mind will be open to every solution -- except one. We should not -- we must not -- and I will not -- raise taxes."
--JIM DOYLE, Liar
"He's a terrorist. Rush Limbaugh is a terrorist."
--JOY BEHAR
"You know, I just want to say to her (Sarah Palin), just very quickly...F--- you."
--JON STEWART
"Should I be worried about being a slave and being returned to slavery?"
--WHOOPI GOLDBERG
"I also believe that America is the greatest sin against God."
--FR. MICHAEL PFLEGER
"Those who think they can revive the stinking corpse of the usurping and fake Israeli regime by throwing a birthday party are seriously mistaken. Today the reason for the Zionist regime's existence is questioned, and this regime is on its way to annihilation."
--MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD
"We'll be eight degrees hotter in ten, not ten but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals."
--TED TURNER
"Look, [Mitt] Romney comes from a religion founded by a criminal who was anti-American, pro-slavery, and a rapist. And he comes from that lineage and says, 'I respect this religion fully.'"
--LAWRENCE O'DONNELL
"Mexico does not end at its borders... Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico."
--FELIPE CALDERON
"The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that told me it's not a problem.' If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame retardant."
--AL GORE
"Don't fear the terrorists. They're mothers and fathers."
--ROSIE O'DONNELL
"Is America ready for a black president? Well, I say we just had a retarded one. When did being black become a bigger deterrent than being retarded?"
--CHRIS ROCK
"Shut the f--- up! Shut up if you can't take a joke [about President Bush]!"
--BARBRA STREISAND
"Right, oh, yeah, Happy 9/11! Celebrate the day, right?"
--JAMES BROLIN, Mr. Barbra Streisand
"I think President Bush very well may have signed an authorization for the 9/11 attacks."
--KEVIN BARRETT, UW-MADISON Lecturer
"I said what I said. I am not guilty."
--SADDAM HUSSEIN
"Terri will not be starved to death. Her nutrition and hydration will be taken away."
--MICHAEL SCHIAVO
"On the eve of the election last month my wife Judith and I were driving home late in the afternoon and turned on the radio for the traffic and weather. What we instantly got was a freak show of political pornography: lies, distortions, and half-truths -- half-truths being perhaps the blackest of all lies. "
--BILL MOYERS
"I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for."
--HOWARD DEAN
"The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy.' They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win."
--MICHAEL MOORE
"And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs."
"I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president."
--HILLARY CLINTON
"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is."
--BILL CLINTON
"And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment."
--MICHELLE OBAMA
"If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew, uh, as a janitor, makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor."
"[F]or most of my lifetime, the United States was such a dominant economic power, we were such a large market, our industry, our technology, our manufacturing was so significant that we always met the rest of the world economically on our terms. And now, because of the incredible rise of India and China and Brazil and other countries, the United States remains the largest economic and the largest market but there’s real competition out there. And that's potentially healthy. It makes -- Michelle was saying earlier I like tough questions because it keeps me on my toes. Well, this will keep America on its toes."
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"If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, 'We're gonna PUNISH OUR ENEMIES and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us,' if they don't see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it's gonna be harder and that's why I think it's so important that people focus on voting on November 2."
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"We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but THEY GOTTA SIT IN BACK."
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"We can absorb a terrorist attack. We'll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever... we absorbed it and we are stronger."
"We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers so I know whose ass to kick."
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"We're not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that's fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money. But, you know, part of the American way is, you know, you can just keep on making it if you’re providing a good product or you're providing good service. We don't want people to stop fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow the economy."
"It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them. And that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure."
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"But I -- I think that the most important thing for the public to understand is, we're not handling any of these cases any different than the Bush administration handled them all through 9/11."
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"One such translator was an American of Haitian descent, representative of the extraordinary work that our men and women in uniform do all around the world -- Navy CORPSE-MAN Christian [sic] Brossard. And lying on a gurney aboard the USNS Comfort, a woman asked Christopher: 'Where do you come from? What country? After my operation,' she said, 'I will pray for that country.' And in Creole, CORPSE-MAN Brossard responded, 'Etazini.' The United States of America."
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"I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow was around, and so I want to give a shout-out to that Congressional Medal of Honor winner. It's good to see you."
"I am going to teach [my daughters] first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."
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"The reforms we seek would bring greater competition, choice, savings, and INEFFICIENCIES to our health care system."
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"Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it."
--BARACK OBAMA
NOTEWORTHY QUOTATIONS
"In a word, freedom is ever new. It is a challenge held out to each generation, and it must constantly be won over for the cause of good.... [A] democracy without values can lose its very soul."
--POPE BENEDICT XVI
"When freedom does not have a purpose, when it does not wish to know anything about the rule of law engraved in the hearts of men and women, when it does not listen to the voice of conscience, it turns against humanity and society."
--POPE JOHN PAUL II
"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."
--MOTHER TERESA
"To promote choice for its own sake is more akin to self-indulgence than self-determination. It is the philosophy of a pre-schooler in a candy shop."
--BRIAN POLLARD, M.D.
"The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people."
--MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
"The house we hope to build is not for my generation but for yours. It is your future that matters. And I hope that when you are my age, you will be able to say as I have been able to say: We lived in freedom. We lived lives that were a statement, not an apology."
--RONALD REAGAN
"Liberalism is the philosophy of the stupid."
--MARK LEVIN
"We are Warriors forever."
--BO ELLIS
"I know how much you're supposed to enjoy every sandwich, you know."
