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: 

Outrageous! Scandalous! A young spokesman for a major Wisconsin political party compares a politician to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. And he's fired. No, wait. He's not fired. Instead, the spokesman goes on to become governor!

The party was Republican, the year was 1992 and the spokesman was a 24-year-old Scott Walker. Yes, that Scott Walker.

True, the politician whom Walker compared to Dahmer was an inexecrable racist, the one-time GOP candidate and Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. But bad as Duke's prejudiced views were, he was not a cannibalistic serial killer.

“We must find a consensus, not conquer those who disagree,” said Senator Bob Jauch.

The Senator knows about disagreement. His Senate district includes an area of the state known as the Penokee Range. A 22 mile iron ore vein runs through this range. Dotted on its surface are lakes, trout streams and the head waters of many rivers. Downstream is the Bad River watershed and the reservation of the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa.

The Bad River watershed contains 40% of all the wetlands in the Lake Superior watershed. The lake is the largest fresh water body on the planet. Wisconsin passed into law protection of this water through the Great Lakes Compact.

In a surprising admission yesterday, Tom Tiffany, the nominal author of SB1, allowed that the bill allows for more environmental depredation in the area of the mine.  When pressed on the issue he stated:

“The bill reflects the reality of mining. There are going to be some impacts to the environment above the iron ore body,” said Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst. “If the law is challenged and ends up in court, the judge needs to know it was the Legislature’s intent to allow adverse (environmental) impacts. That way, a judge can’t find fault if the environment is impacted.”

Although this has been obvious from the start, it's surprising to hear Tiffany admit this, particularly after all of the obfuscation from him and the Walker administration that the bill does not lower environmental standards. Read the full article at the Capital Times.