Corruption

Finding duplicates in the Recall Walker and Kleefisch petitions could be done in a few weeks for about $150,000 plus computer time.

One efficient way to find duplicates is to enter addresses into a data base, either by scanning or by typing. Scanning of many different handwriting samples will require another level of proofreading to satisfy the critics. While a skilled typist proofreads even while typing.

“This just would never happen for 99.9% of the criminal dependents in our legal system. Nobody has the resources to game the legal system for eight years in order to turn a 15 month prison sentence into a $5,000 fine.

 

What the Waukesha County D.A. has done has sent a message to the whole state that there are two systems of justice. There is one for the politically well connected and the well to do, and there’s one for everybody else.” -- Mike McCabe of Wisconsin Democracy campaign, on Scott Jensen's amazing plea bargain.

Michael Horne, intrepid reporter and author of Milwaukee World, is reporting that the Democratic Party of Wisconsin is suing State Senator Dan Kapanke for violating campaign laws:

The party also alleges Kapanke failed to fully comply with its request for communications about the event by his political staff members. [The party had in its possession, an e-mail composed by a Senate staffer on state time inviting legislators to participate in the event. That would be an illegal use of state resources, if the event were indeed to be found to be political in nature. However, that same e-mail was not included in Kapanke's response to the public records request, as one might expect.]

The suit also asks for staff time records and much other data, presumably to see if Senate staff members were on the state's clock while working the event. Kapanke didn't hand that stuff over, either. In an August 3rd, 2009 final demand letter to Kapanke, Attorney Michael Maistelman wrote "Your failure to follow Wisconsin law is because to do so would reveal even more serious violations on your part."

Make sure to read the entire post, including the addenda and updates, as well as the comment thread.

Cross posted at Cog Dis, among other places.

US Attorney Purge smoke comin' out of Wisconsin: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIOb_GoE

Rep. Conyers (D-MI) put out the word that he now has evidence that some of those RNC emails contain more information about Wisconsin US Attorney Steven Biskupic. All eyes on Wisconsin.

This morning's New York Times carries an article on its front page discussing the bogus "widespread voter fraud prosecution" throughout the country, and features Wisconsin. Makes you proud, eh?

In Wisconsin, where prosecutors have lost almost twice as many cases as they won, charges were brought against voters who filled out more than one registration form and felons seemingly unaware that they were barred from voting.

One ex-convict was so unfamiliar with the rules that he provided his prison-issued identification card, stamped “Offender,” when he registered just before voting.

If only it were just Wisconsin. It's a story that isn't going to die any time soon.

Today's New York Times carries an editorial on the continuing scandals involving pressure to investigate trumped-up charges against Democrats throughout the country, and its relationship to the federal prosecutor findings. It uses Georgia Thompson as the prime example. The issue being raised here and elsewhere is - If some prosecutors were fired for not pursuing enough cases that benefited the Republicans - what did the others do to keep their jobs? 

As Congress investigates the politicization of the United States attorney offices by the Bush administration, it should review the extraordinary events the other day in a federal courtroom in Wisconsin. The case involved Georgia Thompson, a state employee sent to prison on the flimsiest of corruption charges just as her boss, a Democrat, was fighting off a Republican challenger. It just might shed some light on a question that lurks behind the firing of eight top federal prosecutors: what did the surviving attorneys do to escape the axe?