I attended a fundraiser for Ed Fallone last night, which was my first opportunity to meet Ed Fallone. I found him engaging, committed, and charming. The state supreme court has been challenged with a number of issues in the last few years, many of which have brought people to think of it as dysfunctional. There's a difference between having differing legal opinions and the sort of rancorous carryings-on that have occurred recently. I make it a habit to not formally endorse candidates here, but in this case I think that Ed Fallone would be a great addition to the Supreme Court, and that he would bring a commitment to making the court work better, more effectively, and less secretively.  I recorded part of his talk at the fundraiser in Eau Claire last night, so I will let Ed speak for himself.

Ed Fallone in Eau Clare 3/14/2013

Yesterday's post here about Scott Walker's misguided conclusion that Wisconsin needs to better match skills to unfilled jobs covered the particular example of welders. New developments have since emerged. They suggest even more strongly that the real issue isn't a supposed skills mismatch, but rather in at least some cases the unwillingness of businesses to pay equitable wages.

“This is the worst budget in over 30 years,” the Chippewa Valley Superintendent told me. “We’ve had worse spending cuts, but not a wholesale change in policy.”

Educators worry a dramatic increase in public money for private schools will threaten already cash-strapped local schools. The proposed state budget makes statewide a “voucher program” in which students from “failing” public school districts attend private schools with public money.

Private schools do not follow the same accountability measures as public schools. They do not report test scores, follow state curricular standards, nor do they receive the recently required public school report cards.

The Governor proposed a $78 million expansion of vouchers to school districts with at least 4,000 students and at least two schools that are near failing or failing on the school report card.

Critics fear the increased voucher program will drain money away from public schools’ resources and cause an increase in local property taxes. 

It's been noted elsewhere that "conservative" really isn't an applicable description any longer of those political interests who portray themselves in that regard. After all, Wisconsin's new mining bill is anything but conservative, yet was enacted with wholly "conservative" political votes. The bill doesn't conserve anything, least of all our pristine forests or waters, which are by our state constitution a commonwealth of properties and resources that cannot be legally reassigned to some narrow, least of all private, interest.

Governor Scott Walker recently released the 2013 Wisconsin Regulatory Review Report, which purports to be a survey of "thousands of employers contacted through 45 trade associations."  Even though I question the methodology of this "survey", the heavy bias of the questions asked, and the obvious skewing, the central theme of Walker's deregulation zeal has been debunked by his own survey. 

Days after Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke appeared on an anti-government radio program where he said he would never, even if ordered by a "legislatively passed law," take away someone's guns, interviewed Justice Patience Roggensack on a radio program he was guest-hosting, where they both sang the praises of following the "rule of law" and not undermining "legislatively passed law."   

In her interview, Roggensack said that if Fallone is elected he would "chip away" at the powers of the other two branches of government and then, in bidding Roggensack farewell, Clarke echoed her sentiments and said that if she doesn't retain her seat, liberals will be able to block a "legislatively passed law" from going into effect:

"We can't give liberals the opportunity to flip this court. Right now the court is 4-3... 'rule of law' judges... I'm not going to call them conservatives, they're 'rule of law.'  And... they're waiting for this opportunity, if they can flip this court, they know they can probably get at Act 10 a little bit more and they know for sure they can block this voter ID... dually legislatively passed law... so, again: April election, let's not fall asleep and let's make sure we can get Justice Roggensack across the finish line so she can retain her seat."

I am trying to work while listening to the debate on the mining bill in Madison (or, as I like to think of it, the Lawyer Full Employment Bill). A procession of substitute bills have been proposed by the Democrats in the assembly, all to be tabled by a party-line vote. This sham "job-creation" bill is going to pass on schedule around 6:30 today. I would like to remind all of you that this bill is not just about the proposed iron mine in Northern Wisconsin, but puts the foot in the door for environmental degredation throughout our state. It sets terrible precedents of setting the rights of businesses above the rights of taxpayers and our children.

On February 22, U.S. Senator Ron Johnson spoke at an event called, "David Horowitz's West Coast Retreat." During his speech, Johnson said that the reason people vote Democratic is because liberals "control our schools" and have intentionally "dumbed down our population" as part of a strategy to control the populace: