AND THE FUTURE BEGINS............... The final entry of HungryGuyMadison

Twenty two months since it all began.  Feels more like twenty two years.  So much has happened since the uprising against the fraudulently (and now it seems, illegally) elected, psychopathic governor of Wisconsin first started coming together.

300+ blog entries

28 days on hunger strike

30 pounds of muscle and organ weight lost

2 cardiac arrests

150,000 people encircling the Capitol building.

9 elections in Wisconsin since this began

Over 100 death threats

3 physical assaults against me, none effective

17 nations not including the U.S. that covered the hunger strike (that I know of)

100's of television, radio, magazine and newspaper interviews

1 major motion picture documentary I may be a small part of

1 former Wisconsin right wing fanatic legislator we had arrested

3 we had recalled from office

1 non-Wisconsin conservative extremist's legislators career I helped ruin along with

1 multi-million dollar lobbying firm

500+ and still going strong, Solidarity SingAlongs

2 Koch brothers who started it all

1 Tea Party subverted and turned into a short lived neo-con extremist movement

All this and so much more has happened since everything began in the winter of early 2011.  My head spins whenever I start to even begin thinking about it all.  The Wisconsin that I live in now bears little resemblance to the Wisconsin that I grew up in.  The face I look at in the mirror every morning looks mostly the same as the one from 22 months ago, but the person inside is very, very different.  It would be impossible for me to put into words all that has changed with me since Scott Walker dropped his bomb on Wisconsin. It would be impossible for me to put into words how much I have changed physically, mentally and emotionally, how much Wisconsin has changed as well as millions of her citizens here at ground zero Madison, and across the entire badger state.

We have been tormented and battered, marched in the bitterest winter winds and slept in the snow.  We have been lied to, threatened and arrested.  We have been released without charges and supported by people the world over.  We have stood around the Capitol in the blazing summer sun and crept through the halls of that same building at night, lifting advance copies of legislation and revealing evil plans.  We have fought and fought and fought until we were too weak to even breath it seemed, and yet still somehow we continued on.  And every bit of it has made us stronger, smarter and more effective.

I am much harder and crueler than I ever was before.  I am also, at the same time, much more compassionate and thoughtful.  I sometimes have trouble picturing exactly who and what I am now as opposed to when all of this started.  I look basically the same but I am much different.  I am no longer the person who started writing this little blog back in the winter of 2011.  And that is one of the reasons why I must lay this project to rest now.  It has served its purpose, to inform people everywhere of the struggle here at ground zero.  To tell them the day to day struggles of myself and many others in the fight to save Wisconsin and the spirit of democracy, fairness and justice.  It has served its purpose and now its time has come, and besides, the person who used to write it no longer really exists anymore.

This collective "we" which I belong to is still going strong, stronger than ever as a matter of plain and simple fact.  We may have not achieved all of our goals but we are also not giving up the fight nor the momentum which we have built either.  We helped elect our nations first African-American president to a second term and broken the back of the radical and extremist neo-conservative movement in America.  We helped achieve health care and a better quality of life for more than three hundred million people in the last election.  We also lost one crucial state senate seat to the hundreds of millions of dollars that flowed into Wisconsin from out of state and even outside our national borders.

Some would say that we have only fought to a draw, that we are back at square one, exactly where we were twenty two months ago.  But that is not true, there will be only a bare trickle now, of out of state money, flowing into Wisconsin.  The ALEC-loyal members of the Wisconsin GOTea legislature know now that they have been and can be defeated again.  They know that the national tide has turned and that they will not be able to bully and push around the majority of citizens anymore.  The entire dynamic is different, it has changed irrevocably.  And we the people are still here.  We are all changed now, we are much more fearsome foe's to those that oppose the will of the people than we were not two years ago.

Some may say that the most important thing though has not changed, that Scott Walker is still here.  And yes it is true, for now at least.  Scott Walker is still the governor of the great state of Wisconsin.  Wisconsin the state that created the majority of the campaign finance laws.  The state that prided itself since the year 1848 on clean and representational elections and government.  And that now appears to be what will cause the undoing of Scott Walker, what will lead to the emancipation of our great state.  Here are a few more numbers for you to contemplate:

50,000+ recall volunteers

1,000,000 signatures on the recall ballots

$180,000,000.00 mostly from out of state, that barely kept Scott Walker in office.....for now.

???? How many hundreds of thousand of dollars or more transferred to Walkers legal defense fund.

We lost phase one which was the recall election against Scott Walker.  But many said that we would never get anywhere close to the recall and in the end it was a narrow margin that was only possible due to the literal tons and tons of cash that was desperately poured into our election.  And like I said, that was only phase one, there is more.  We had a back up, a plan B, a phase two to our effort.  We have the John Doe investigation that only yesterday in a court of law in the city of Milwaukee named Scott Walker as the ring leader in a felony criminal enterprise that was his becoming the governor of Wisconsin.

The dragnet has drawn in and ensnared not just Walker, but also the fraudsters that he recruited for his campaign.  The forgers and the liars, the thieves, embezzlers and child molesters and endless perverted types with which he surrounded himself and created his criminal enterprise.  Even as those people have been brought to trial and are now being sentenced we are also learning that nearly $100,000,000.00 is missing from the states coffers, disappeared without a trace under Scott Walkers watch.

Soon, I am very certain, this temporary state on insanity which the psychopathic Walker has inflicted upon the good people of Wisconsin will end.  Walker will meet justice and those that supported him will begin to make their claims that they are innocent, that they were lied to and duped and that they never had any idea of what was really happening all along.  They will in the end, try to blame those of  us that fought Walker and his regime and say that we never told them what was really happening, that they never had fair warning.  They can say what they want for in the end we will win and we will write this chapter in the history of the badger state.

Normalcy and decency, fairness and transparent, representational government and clean and fair elections will return to Wisconsin.  The false Norman Rockwell, conservative image of a yesterday that never was will not return because it never existed.  The real Wisconsin built the hard way on generations of toil and struggle, of decency, hard work and dedication to the human spirit, that which we had and then lost under Walker, that is what was and will be returned.  And thus as I close this posting and likewise this chapter not only of my life and recent struggles but of the Wisconsin Movement as well, thus the future begins. . . .

Thank you my sisters and brothers united in our toil and struggle, thank you one and all.  To the thousands which I met and worked with and the millions more that I have shared this solidarity with.....thank you.  And although this blog is coming to an end you will still hear from me from time to time in my new writing project called WisconsinVictorious.  You see the new me is already looking towards a new future.

And the future begins, our future, us, we, Wisconsin!

Now as always and without end.....solidarity forever!

On Wisconsin!    FORWARD!!!!

IMPORTANT news from a lazy writer

This post is running simultaneously on the old blog HungryGuyMadison and the new one, WisconsinVictorious.



Actually more tired than lazy, it has been a really long day on the campaign trail.  Here are two things that all good citizens of voting age in Wisconsin need to be aware of.  I am so thankful I didn't have to write this out myself tonight.  They are even related matters and deserving of your attention as they both pertain to next weeks election.  Here is the first one

                              A write-in Demn against fake human being Alberta Darling


And the second

http://www.wtdy.com/Democratic-Assembly-candidate-attended-Walker-vict/14670140

   A fake Dem (Robb Kahl) exposed and in need of a write-in opposition candidate, you have five days.

On Wisconsin!    FORWARD!!!!

Extending my helping hand to the GOTea

This post in running simultaneously on the old site HungryGuyMadison as well as on the new page WisconsinVictorious.

As many of my readers know I have been keeping myself quite busy lately working on supporting three different Assembly races here in Wisconsin.  In the 49th District I support the Democratic candidate Carol Beals and I would like to take a moment to thank her for running an energetic and clean, good old fashioned campaign like the kind Wisconsin used to have.

Her opponent Travis Tranel who is the ALEC/Tea party candidate has been running a rather dirty, mud slinging attack campaign, the kind we hate to see in Wisconsin.  Not having a political background of his own even though he is the incumbent, he is using slander, lies and misinformation as the basis for his campaign.

I suppose he can't very well proudly run as the rubber stamp candidate for out of state special interests, so he is resorting to typical GOTea playground bully tactics.  That is not very fair in my opinion, and not good public relations for somebody seeking election to office but it is what it is.

It is also not very fair of Tranel to refuse to make himself accessible to voters and constituents.  After all the citizens of the district would like some questions answered in regards to the issues before casting their vote next week.

It seems very unfair or unsporting of Tranel to distance himself from the tea baggers who got him into office in the first place, I know I would be upset about that and would want to discuss things with him.  But Tranels websites do not allow for people to communicate with him or leave messages.  His campaign e-mail box is full and does not accept any more incoming mail.  His home phone is unlisted and his office phone goes unanswered. So I am going to help the baggers get in touch with their boy wonder.

Also unfair is Tranels intentionally releasing and mass mailing the home phone number of Carol Beals to the violent and radical supporters that he has on the extremist right.  You can imagine the amount of harassment and abuse Carol and her family (even her grandchildren) have suffered because of this.

With all of this unfairness going on in the election I decided to do something about it.  So I dug through some Republican Party of Wisconsin online files that I should not have been able to access, and I came up with Travis Tranels secured and unlisted home phone number.

It only seems fair to make the candidate available for questions from his constituents.  And also turnabout is fair play, and I am all about fair play.  So if you have questions or comments for Travis Tranel please feel free to call him at            608-744-8774      .  

On Wisconsin!    FORWARD!!!!

Open letter to the MEN of the 49th district.

This post is running simultaneously on the old blog "hungryguymadison" as well as on the new "WisconsinVictorious"

Travis Tranel is more than just your incumbent Representative for the 49^th District; he is abnormal in that he is twenty-some years old.  He is also normal in that, as a late-teenager/twenty some year old, he seems to believe he knows everything.  From top to bottom, big to small, Travis Tranel seems to feel that he knows it all.  One of the big things that he knows is that when all is said and done, Wisconsinite’s are just too plain dumb to legislate, to govern themselves.  He has proven this time and again on the Assembly floor by refusing to listen to any other Representatives from Wisconsin.

He does however listen to rich fat-cats from the East Coast, most notably New Jersey.  Travis knows that these people are smarter than you and I, and for that reason (along with the campaign donations that is) he is helping them in taking over Wisconsin government, to rule over us.

You see Travis has a 99.7% record in the Assembly, of voting for each and every single piece of legislation sent to him by the fat-cat group known as ALEC.  ALEC writes the laws that they want to see govern our lives here in Wisconsin, and then they send them to people like Travis who rubber stamp them into the law of the land.  Now the folks in ALEC are a little wiser and more patient than Travis Tranel, which is why they don’t send all of their legislation in one big bulk folder to be voted on immediately.  ALEC knows that too much change too fast will cause people to worry.  So they send step 1 legislation to Minnesota and the step 2 legislation to Wisconsin and step 3 to say….Illinois.

That way a law gets passed in Minnesota and nothing very radical changes right away.  And the folks in Minnesota get to see the step 2 laws being phased in, in Wisconsin and step 3 in the other state.  Then a year or two later ALEC will push the step 2 and 3 laws in Minnesota where people have already seen these new laws in other states and they don’t flinch too much because everything has been slowly introduced and the change is spread out over time.

But once those 3 levels of laws are passed everything changes radically, they just introduce the radical new laws in bite sized chunks to keep folks from panicking.  Until all the new laws are in place and working together as they were intended that is, and then folks start to panic, after it is already too late and the damage is being done.

“The War on Women” is something we have all heard lots about lately.  And the laws concerning wage equality, birth control, abortion, rape that is spreading across the entire nation are coming from ALEC.  And they are being introduced slowly, “phased in” as it were, because ALEC knows that if ALL the legislation was introduced ALL at once and ALL at the same time that people would panic and try to stop those laws.  Especially the laws you have been hearing about so very much lately that deal with rape, incest, pedophilia and abortion.

Now let’s look a few years down the road if you will, good men of Wisconsin, and let’s see what could happen in our lives if rubber stamp Travis has his way and our laws all radically change.  Let’s say that you are married, happily so as many of you are, and you have children.  One boy and one girl and a happy little home that you all live in.  A charming little picture of your typical, happy Wisconsin family.  Now let’s say that one day you go off to work and sometime in the afternoon a police officer shows up to where you work.  You get called aside and are told that something tragic happened at home while you were away at work.  Some criminal low-life broke into your home and raped your wife.  How would you feel?  What would be the first thing that comes into your mind when you think about something horrible like this possibly happening?  More than likely, you think about protecting your wife and family.

 Now for the sake of argument, and I know this is no fun to think about-but we must because wishing does not make things go away, let’s say that the rapist got your wife pregnant during his cowardly and criminal attack.  If ALEC and Travis “I’m more radical than Scott Walker” Tranel have their way, you and your wife’s problems would just be starting.  This is because if all the ALEC laws are passed you would have to worry about:

The criminal, the rapist would have as much say as you or your wife when it comes to dealing not only with the pregnancy, but what medical care she can receive if it were to have a possible influence on the pregnancy.

The criminal could take you to court and legally demand, and win a verdict, that you and your wife have to deal with that nine month pregnancy, knowing all the time that the criminals child of rape was growing inside.

You would have to deal with the cost of the pregnancy, along with everything else that you would have to deal with, after some mad dog rapists breaks into your home and attacks your wife.

You would have to deal with the cost of the delivery and making your home ready for a new and unwanted baby, one that is a child of rape.

The rapist could take you to court if he felt you weren’t raising HIS child the way that he wants.  He could make you pay not only the cost of raising his child, but for special schooling and activities that he, the rapist, feels that HIS child is entitled to.

How would you feel about this child of rape?  Could you unconditionally love the child as your own?  Would you and your wife be able to deal with the daily reminder of the tragedy that occurred which brought about the child?

How would your own children respond to this new child?  How would you explain to them why this new child must be accepted into your home?

How would you feel about the criminal, the rapist, having visitation rights?  Being able to come into your home on a regular basis and judge the care you are giving to HIS child?

How would you feel if the rapist belonged to another race or culture, and felt that you need to relocate your family to live closer to say a big city, where the rapist and his immediate family live?  That way the rapist could breathe easy knowing that HIS child was being raised (by you) in the way he wants.

What if the rapist decided that he did not agree with your religion?  He would have the right to take you to court and say that HIS child should be raised Southern Baptist, or Unitarian.  What if the rapist wanted HIS child raised as an Orthodox Jew or perhaps Muslim or Atheist?  How would you feel about things then?

What if the rapist broke into your home while you were away at work and your wife wasn’t home but somebody else was?  Somebody like your sister or your very own daughter.  What if your mother was visiting that day when the rapist broke in?  How would you feel about things then?

These are all terrible questions and terrible thoughts.  Wishing will not make the possibility of these things happening in the future go away!  Only “manning up” and voting out ALEC can fix the problem and prevent these situations from happening to Wisconsin citizens in the future.  And who better than Wisconsinites to decide what Wisconsin’s future should be?  Regardless of what rubber stamp Travis and his ALEC buddies think.

There are many MEN out there who are brave, proud and strong.  Men like that are not afraid of a women being paid a fair wage for fair work.  They are not afraid of a woman being able to make up her own mind and choose what she knows is best for her.  A strong man is confident that he can fairly compete on a level playing field with anyone.

Some men are not so brave or proud or strong.  They feel they need every little advantage and dirty trick in the world to tip the scales in favor of them.  They are not confident that they can stand on their own, that they can compete with women, that they can handle a fair and level playing field.  Those “men” will be voting for Travis Tranel on November 6^th.

On Wisconsin!    FORWARD!!!!

Rejected without merit!

This post is running simultaneously on the old blog "hungryguymadison" as well as on the new "WisconsinVictorious"

This story is gaining interest and will be viral by tonight, at least in Wisconsin internet circles.  That is unless Fox News gets hold of it and starts whining from the rooftops to take attention away from Willard Mitt Romney's nationwide debacle last night.

Like I said it was a bar time brawl with two young men thrashing another young man.  The young man who ended up with the black eye and the bloody nose was the son of tea bag extremist Senator Neal Kedzie.  And Poppa Kedzie is right at this very moment using his entire staff and all of his connections to get his version of the story out to all possible media sources before the official police investigation results can be released.  When the mainstream media is calling me first thing in the morning you know something big is going on. 

The story goes like this, Senator Kedzie's son Sean was asleep inside his dwelling on or near the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater campus.  Sean heard a "commotion" outside and ventured out to investigate.  There he saw a young man about his own age removing his (Sean's) Romney/Ryan lawn sign.  Sean allegedly demanded that the sign be returned to its previous spot.  The other young man then neatly placed the sign back where it was.  And here is where it gets interesting.

At this point a second young man (presumed to be an accomplice of the first young man who removed, then replaced the sign) burst out of the darkness and placed Sean Kedzie in a choke hold.  The first young man (sign guy) then started striking Sean about the face and head.  At this time Sean's neighbor awoke and came outside to see what all the noise was about.  Seeing the fracas, the neighbor yelled for the two assailants to cease what they were doing at which point they ran off into the night.

The neighbor called the police who sent a squad car over to take a statement and begin a preliminary field investigation.  Statements were taken by Sean and the person next door who made the 911 call.  Sean was then transported (at this point we don't know if he drove himself, police or an ambulance took him, or perhaps even the guy next door) to a medical facility where he was treated for his bloody nose and black eye and released.

At some point Sean Kedzie called his father and related the incident to him.  Sen. Kedzie then began calling his staff and told them to start alerting the media.  Senator Kedzie then drove to see his son before he was released by medical staff and took a picture of his sons face.  The kid did not look great I have to admit, his nose may have been broken.  One eye was puffed half-way shut and on the other side it looked like a black eye was developing.  I am certain that it did not feel good and I hope that the injuries incurred were not any more serious than they appear to be.

And as I stated above Sean Kedzie was released and his dad then drove him back home.  Then the Senator, along with his staff, began the media blitz.  Apparently all due influence was used and the picture of the black eye and bloody nose was spread far and wide.  Pressure was applied to make this a leading story in the morning news cycle.  These efforts are continuing even now and that is where things are at this moment as I write this posting.

Now some questions come to my mind (and apparently the media's as well which is why I and some others were contacted) which I will share with you all.

I live in Madison which has a huge campus and student population.  Recently on any given evening, I see drunk frat boys stumbling down the sidewalk being loud and aggressive.  I see them rip a "Tammy Baldwin for Congress" yard sign up and then, a few doors down they will tear out a "I stand with Scott Walker" sign out of someones yard.  We all know this behaviour is commonplace, so how can the Senator definitely say that the attack is politically motivated?

Senator Kedzie is a big supporter of fellow tea bagger Representative Pridemore who said that battered women while being beaten by a boyfriend or spouse should just "remember the good times they had and after the beating, return to life as normal"  With that in mind, should not the Senators advice to his son have been to do the same?  Just accept the beating as a normal part of interacting with others and then go on as if nothing happened?  Why the denouncement of the alleged attack?  Why tout the black eye picture out to the press to demonize the attack and the attacker if he considers this normal and totally acceptable behaviour?

If one of the alleged assailants caused a distraction/commotion, by noisily and blatantly tampering with the Romney/Ryan yard sign while the other waited in the shadows, then that raises some more questions right there, such as:

Why not just ring the doorbell and attack Sean Kedzie when he answered the door?  That would have been much quieter and less likely to lead to police investigation.

Why would the one assailant politely replace the yard sign?  If this was a premeditated attack, would not the focus be on attacking the target?  Would the one alleged assailant really take the time for niceties when he is on a serious mission of premeditated violence?

Since the yard sign story is so very, very iffy......and thus there is no evidence at all of a political motivation, should we not consider a alternative reason for the ambush?  College guys fight and beat on each other every day, on every campus, it is common as dirt.  Was this possibly not over a young woman?  Possibly over non-payment of a debt for a bag of pot or something?

Why would Poppa, Senator Kedzie be so incensed by this one presumed act of violence based on supposed political motivation?  He had no comment whatsoever when his fellow tea baggers attacked people inside the Capitol building in Madison earlier.  He had no comment or concern with  the 117 reported, definate cases of politically motivated violence that occurred against Independents and Democrats during the recall process of Scott Walker.

Why is Senator Kedzie so motivated to have the media cover his particular and specific version of events before the police have a chance to spend a few hours completing their initial investigation and making a statement about it?  That is what the members of the media are so curious about and why they have been contacting us citizen journalists and bloggers, because for obvious reasons they are not allowed to question the Senator on his motivations.

None of this really adds up to me.  It is possible that Senator Kedzie is being honest and realistic about what happened but the odds are really against it.  Especially when you consider the question that I and the media raised about his particular version of the alleged events.  We have all seen over and again, the far right wingers whine and cry whenever they are called out for wrongdoing and/or illegal activity.  As they throw their weight around , the political and monetary influence that they wield, they are always ready to call themselves "victims, victims, victims" anytime somebody disagrees with them and the agenda they are promoting.  Especially if the agenda involves the victimization of others.

We saw this with Randy Hopper, the disgraced for Wisconsin legislator who was recalled by the citizens of the badger state last year.  He was pulled over for swerving all over the road while drinking and driving.  He was found to have a illegal level of alcohol in his bloodstream (or blood in his alcohol stream) but he said he never did a single thing wrong.  That the reason he was charged with drunk driving was a matter of "political motivation" once again, we see the pattern of behaviour from the far right that I noted above.

And speaking of Randy Hopper, he is in the news again.  I will be waiting for him to make his initial court appearance soon, I am sure he will tell the judge that it is all a matter of "political motivation"

http://www.channel3000.com/news/Former-Sen-Hopper-posts-bond-released-from-jail/-/1648/17085478/-/ms4bc4/-/index.html

And as for Senator Neal and his son, Sean Kedzie and this story of alleged attack based on political motivation, unless some very convincing evidence shows up to somehow back up the story they are pushing, I have to say their version of things is "rejected without merit." 


On Wisconsin!    FORWARD!!!!

My sisters and brothers, can you lend me your ears?

This post is running simultaneously on the old blog "hungryguymadison" as well as on the new "WisconsinVictorious"

We all know how the story goes.  Your at home in the evening and you just left your first job and are making dinner and trying to get the kids to do they're homework before you leave for your second job.  Or perhaps your making dinner in the evening, maybe your just hanging out with friends and watching the game while having a beer and relaxing when suddenly.....

The phone rings, you pick it up and a voice says "Hello I am calling from the Wisconsin Democratic Party and I was hoping you would have just a minute to answer two quick questions?"  We have all been on the receiving end of that call.  Some of us are instantly irritated and take it out on the caller.  Some of us are irritated and simply hang up.  Every once in awhile (thank goodness) one of us will take a minute out of their (possibly) busy schedule and agree to answer the questions.

What we all need to remember is that the person speaking to us over the phone is not a faceless drone who has devoted they're life to wasting your time.  That person on the phone is just like you, with a name and a face, with a busy life and other things they could be doing.  The difference is that the person on the phone is losing sleep, or family time, or possible overtime at work that they desperately need, to help the cause of democracy and the Wisconsin Movement.

They are deserving of praise for what they are doing, not dis-respect and certainly not abuse.  It is not easy at all to devote your precious time to cold calling a bunch of strangers every evening.  It is not easy to withstand the slings and arrows of contempt that they receive over and again from the people that they are calling.  The people on those call lists are supposedly concerned citizens and registered voters.  People that you would think would be willing to spare 60 seconds to answer a couple of simple questions regarding our, and our states future.

I became especially aware of these facts while calling a 84 year old life-long Democrat just the other day who, when I asked her if she had just a minute to answer 2 or 3 quick questions said to me "$#%& you and the horse you rode in on!"  Why would she think that I was Amish and owned a horse?  Just kidding, but that is the kind of thing that really makes one reconsider why they are spending all their time volunteering for a cause when the people they are trying to help are being rather petty and abusive.

I wont keep rambling on about the subject, and besides, I have to go and work my volunteer shift soon.  Just please remember that the person calling you on the phone is just that, a person.  They, like yourself, have feelings and emotions, they have better things they could be doing as well.  The big difference is that they are willing to sacrifice precious time for the good of us all.  So please support those efforts and the Wisconsin Movement as well, and give 60 seconds and a few breaths to reply to what they are asking, even if the answer is no.  They will appreciate the civility and little things like that mean a lot to us who are giving all that we possibly can for Wisconsin.

If you want to be angry about the state of affairs and let out some aggression over the phone, may I suggest you call:

Representative Robin Vos (R, ALEC) who just spoke to high schoolers in Wisconsin, sophomores about to get drivers licenses, and told them that sometimes you just need to take your hands off the wheel and text while driving.  This is not only illegal in Wisconsin, it is very, very dangerous and life threatening as is evidenced daily.  Of course knowing Vos he was actually "sexting"
608-266-9171 or 888-534-0063

Representative Roger Rivard (Tea Party) who is busy justifying his statement that "some girls are easy to rape"  And he was not talking about women, he was directly speaking about high school age and younger little girls.  I can not even begin to tell you how wrong this is and at so many levels.
608-266-2519 or 888-534-0075

On Wisconsin!    FORWARD!!!!

In the crush of days.....

With less than a month to go until the November general election I am happy to report that the brave and bold badgers fighting to preserve freedom, democracy and the Constitution are still hard at work.  Sometimes we get lost in the crush of days, we are over-stressed, over-worked and far beyond being "burnt out" and yet we struggle on.

It is easy to lose focus with the lies of the political ad's blasting in one ear and the illegally barked orders of a compromised Capitol Police & Security force in the other ear.  All the while some wing nut teabilly is running around waving guns and screaming that he has to protect his anus from the U.S. Army because the president is going to enforce mandatory homosexuality once he is re-elected in November.

With all this and more happening though, and after nearly two years of nonstop politics and activism, organizing and protest, lies and unbelievable lies, research and statistics, we are still fighting austerity and class warfare.  The confused, illogical and over-emotional and quite often, drunken rhetoric of the Tea Party, the lying and flip-flopping of Robin Vos and Glen Grothman, and the make it up as you go along orders of Chief Erwin have not been nearly enough to derail the Wisconsin Movement.  Lost in the crush of days, still we slog on through it all.

On any given day at the Capitol, in a ten minute period, you will encounter both singly and in groups, officers of the Capitol Police & Security Force telling both citizens and members of the state legislature that it is illegal to walk in the hallways of the Capitol or to use the stairs.  They will then tell you that it is okay to use the hallway or stairs but only if nobody else is using the hallway or stairs.  True story! They tell you that if this is confusing you can just get the new rules explained to you by a special officer who is there to inform people of all these new changes, and that she is not allowed to answer questions or speak to the public or the media.

 They will then tell you that if a officer comes up to you that it is illegal to answer a officers questions (harassment) or to not answer (hampering a non-existent investigation).  They will threaten to arrest you and this is very true "for charges they can not name because whatever it is you are doing is not illegal yet!"  But they can take you into custody anyway on the basis that they will declare whatever it is you did to be illegal at some point in the future.

Most of these officers know that this is all so very wrong, and that it constitutes illegal behaviour on their part.  But they are feeling compelled to become the very antithesis of a law officer lest Chief Erwin has them fired and takes away they're retirement and savings.  This is what happens when one lone nut job, political appointee like Erwin has run of the Capitol building.  And sadly there are very many more like him which we have to deal with day in and day out.  Yet still we continue on with our struggle.

Senseless?  Why yes it is.  Intimidating?  Why yes it is and designed to be that way.  Illogical?  Why, well yes, of course it is.  Just another day in the trenches though here at Ground Zero.  At least Representative Brett Hulsey is enjoying it though, he is now joining in with the McIver Institute and Chief Erwin and calling citizens out as "professional protesters" and saying they should not be at the Capitol.  All they do there, he implies, is complain about unconstitutionality and try to voice their concerns as citizens to the legislature.  If Hulsey was doing his job, then he would be bringing up these very serious matters of constitutionality and representing the constituents; he is a REPRESENTATIVE after all.  But like Chief Erwin, the tea baggers and the rubber stamps for ALEC he is out to be senseless, illogical and intimidating.  Plus it is to his benefit during his re-election effort to draw attention away from his own ethical/legal issue's which are not helping his campaign.

Less than a month until the election, also this month the multiple criminal court trials of Scott Walkers staff is beginning.  There is an end to the tunnel and there is a light that is shining from it.  Fight on you brave and bold badgers for the day of truth and judgment is coming near.  Solidarity forever.

On Wisconsin!    FORWARD!!!!

The Robin that looks like a woodpecker (and sounds like a peckerwood)

Well it took myself and several others weeks of effort but we finally got it done.  We got the Racine County Sheriff's Department and District Attorney to agree to investigate a series of felonies that occurred there this year.  You may be wondering right now why we had to push to get these departments to do there job and investigate a crime, the explanation is simple and ugly.  The Racine County District Attorney as well as the head of the police department there are Tea Party extremists.  And, the person who allegedly committed those felonies is also a right wing extremist, one Samantha Vos the soon to be ex-wife of ALEC head in Wisconsin, Robin Vos.

And for weeks we had to make phone calls, provide information, and relentlessly push the Government Accountability Board, the Racine DA, The Racine County Clerk (another tea bagger) and police department to finally begin to investigate this serious matter.  Part of their reluctance to do so is because Robin Vos has been screaming from the mountain tops about voter fraud in Wisconsin, and thus the need for serious voter suppression laws which would cure the non-existent and unprovable allegations that he has been making.  In all reality of course the voter suppression law he sponsored would only serve to disenfranchise working class, elderly, veterans, students and minorities or in other words, people that wouldn't likely be voting for Robin Vos.  It would look very bad indeed for Robin Vos to be so close to the one and only verifiable case of voter fraud in the state and especially during an election year.

I had nearly given up on getting this investigation off the ground but my friend Roberta Retrum never relented in her pursuit of pushing for the investigation and it was her who finally got the effort of the ground.  And for that I can never thank her enough.  And Robin Vos can not hate her enough apparently.  The mainstream media reluctantly began to finally cover the story this week and Vos made sure that when the article was released, that his voice would be the loudest one.  And this is where things start to get "interesting", and by interesting when talking about Robin Vos, I mean "stupid."

Vos stated that Roberta Retrum had a personal vendetta against himself, this point he could not stress enough.  What Vos doesn't understand is that millions of Wisconsin citizens have strong feelings about him because he is the ALEC chair for the state of Wisconsin.  He is the leading tea bagger and the head of the vanguard when it comes to letting East Coast billionaires write the laws that decides the future of the badger state.  Vos jumped into the limelight and took up the extremist mantle personally, that is why he is the object of so much scorn.

Vos also stated that this is amongst other things, a political attack against himself.  Well, yes it is!  Once again Vos (like a spayed dog) doesn't get it.  Vos is a politician, he made allegations of voter fraud (completely and totally unproven at that) a cornerstone of his political agenda.  And thus when his soon to be ex-wife (number 3 or 4, I lose track of these things) committed felony voter fraud not once, but three times, it of course will lead to a political backlash against him.

Vos then further stated, that the "attack" was "personal in nature" and "disgusting."  Well Robin in regards to the personal part of things you should have expected it.  You are the one with the very public and rather hypocritical personal life.  I would remind my readers at this point that Vos is the one who when he wasn't toting "family values" to the media, was on the Internet while married taking out ad's for girlfriends.  He was well known years ago for enjoying wine and skinny dipping.  When you make your personal life a public matter it becomes fair game.  If he wanted his personal life to be personal, he shouldn't have been posting his infidelities on the Internet, along with nude photo's of himself.  "Dick pic's" as they are known, have a tendency to work against the best interest of the person taking them.  It did nothing good for Brett Farve, who was loved in Wisconsin, it will do no less for Robin, who is actually rather reviled in Wisconsin.

As for the "disgusting" part I don't see what can possibly be disgusting about a concerned citizen alerting the authorities to a crime.  Actually three crimes, all felonies, it would seem to me that Vos is the one with a disgusting lack of respect for the law in this matter.  And since we are discussing things that are disgusting, it was Robin Vos himself who had his tea party friends digging through dumpsters and garbage cans in Racine trying to substantiate his claims that voter fraud actually exists.  They rummaged through the dumpsters and came up proudly holding up to the light of day, in front of the media camera's, unused paperwork that was leftover after the elections in Racine.  That does not prove voter fraud Vos, it only means that the poll workers in Racine had more forms than they needed that day.  If there was any story at all there it was Vos's waste of media time and crying wolf, along with a lack of consideration for the recycling effort.  Media outlets were not too happy over that one either.

Perhaps by now you can see why there is not a whole lot of respect in Wisconsin for Robin Vos.  He is a over-compensating, strutting little peacock (well actually he looks more like a woodpecker) of a man, noted for his dishonesty and lack of fidelity.  Which is why his most recent in a series of wives (he also claims to be devoutly religious) left the state and filed for divorce from him.  Which brings us back to the matter of three cases of felony voter fraud against Samantha Vos.  She fled from Wisconsin to Idaho to file for divorce from Robin Vos.  To file divorce in Idaho she formally and legally claimed that she was a resident of the state of Idaho, was not a resident in any regards in any other state and, had no intentions of living in or taking part in activities in any other state in which she was not a resident.

She then voted in all three Wisconsin elections this year.  Which is a curious matter and there has been much talk and speculation recently about why she did that.  She knew that voter fraud is a felony, so why would she willingly and knowingly commit that felony?  Because Robin in her opinion is a disgusting excuse for a politician and representative of the people that she wanted to disgrace him?  Perhaps it was because she really wanted to see Scott Walker recalled?  Maybe it was her firing off a shot (or ballot)  against the GOTea and its war on women?  She could just be as arrogant and oblivious to reality as Robin is.   Most likely we will never know what inspired her to take the actions that she did, the likelihood of that coming out in court is very low.  But I am looking forward to there being a court case or at the very least, a plea bargain.  Likewise I am also looking forward to the comments that will come from Robin Vos after the trial, Robin Vos the woodpecker who cried wolf and ended up with pie on his face.  And not the type that he likes either but "piegate" is a story for another time.

On Wisconsin!    FORWARD!!!!

Gotta love the blogs

Just a quick post today, I am busy at work on several candidates campaigns during this all important election cycle here in the badger state.  As my regular readers know I am no fan of the mainstream media.  They are corporate funded and controlled and having been showing a dizzying lack of coverage and even outright misreporting of important stories of the day.


More and more, bloggers and citizen journalists, including yours truly, having been trying to fill the gaps in coverage and report on the hard news that the for profit, mainstream media outlets, refuse or are not allowed to cover.  So for those of you on facebook I have created a new site called "For the love of WI blogs" it is a daily updated series of links to the blogs and citizen journalism pages that are needed to stay abreast of what is happening in the badger state as well as the Wisconsin Movement.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/For-the-love-of-WI-blogs/112956495524817

It contains not only the new stories and articles as they are released by the individual bloggers, but also a near complete listing of all the political blogs in Wisconsin, as well as the national pages that cover events here in the badger state.  I hope you enjoy the new page.  And for those of you who are not on facebook I am including a not quite but nearly so, list of all Wisconsin blogs from the far political left to slightly right of center.  I wont insult your intelligence with the blogs which contain the extremists rantings of the Tea Party, AFP and ALEC.

http://billycreek.blogspot.com/

http://bloggingblue.com/

http://brewcitybrawler.typepad.com/

http://dekerivers.wordpress.com/

http://www.couleeprogressives.org/

http://danecountyalmanac.blogspot.com/

http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/category.php?category=Emily%27s%20Post

http://www.fightingbob.com/

http://folkbum.blogspot.com/

http://www.forwardlookout.com/forward-our-motto

http://www.fightingbob.com/weblog.cfm

http://freewhitewater.com/

http://griperblade.blogspot.com/

http://supervisorhaas.wordpress.com/

http://clydewinter.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fhungryguymadison.blogspot.com%2F&h=5AQEWnR-_

http://illusorytenant.blogspot.com/

http://jimrosenberg.wordpress.com/

http://dancody.org/

http://www.peterpatau.com/

http://thelostalbatross.blogspot.com/

http://malcontends.blogspot.com/

http://midcoastviews.blogspot.com/

http://moneyedpoliticians.net/

http://the-motley-cow.blogspot.com/

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/john-nichols

http://othersideofmymouth.blogspot.com/

http://thepaulryanwatch.blogspot.com/

http://www.waxingamerica.com/

http://plaistedwrites.blogspot.com/

http://thepoliticalenvironment.blogspot.com/

http://political-heat.blogspot.com/

http://prettyimportant.wordpress.com/

http://www.prodane.org/in_the_news/

http://reform-dem.blogspot.com/

http://www.thedailypage.com/thesconz/

http://talktotony.blogspot.com/

http://www.forwardlookout.com/brenda-konkel

http://garyfromoshkosh.blogspot.com/

http://www.uppitywis.org/

http://urbanmilwaukee.com/

http://www.uwmadisondems.org/blog

http://watchdogmilwaukee.com/

http://whallah.blogspot.com/

http://glenn-grothman-watch.blogspot.com/

http://whilewestillhavetime.blogspot.com/

On Wisconsin!    FORWARD!!!!

How one tea bagger nearly destroyed an entire neighborhood

This is a tale of the city of Madison.  It is a tale of contempt and corruption.  It is a tale of destruction and rebirth.  It tells the story of how one semi-literate tea bagger nearly destroyed an entire East Side Madison neighborhood and the lengths that decent citizens had to go to, to stop him.

On Madison’s working class East Side, tucked behind the Gardner’s Bakery lie’s the Hawthorne neighborhood.  Built out of filled marshes after the Korean War, the area is a mixture of owned and rented properties.  Anchored by the Hawthorne Middle School it is a quiet and peaceful working class neighborhood.  It is a safe neighborhood where people can let their children play and get along with their neighbors.  A tranquil, affordable place to live, raise children and be content with life.  Well…….at least it used to be.

Two miles away on the near North Side of Madison is Graedel Court, more of a driveway than a street.  Only about a hundred yards long and with only a few homes on it, it lies just off of Northport Drive.  And it is home to the tea bagger that nearly destroyed the Hawthorne neighborhood.  He certainly did a lot of damage to it as well as changing the lives of many people who live there.  Which is amazing considering that he only owns one rental property in the Hawthorne neighborhood.  A small side by side duplex, one of three identical one’s, sitting non-descriptively on a corner.

I am aware of all this because this is my former neighborhood, and I love it dearly, friendly place where most everyone knows everyone else who lives there.  The neighbors gather every evening after work to discuss the matters that fill their lives.  They help each other with leaf raking in the fall and snow shoveling in the winter.  And they all know the name of Jeffrey Pulley, the tea bagger who lives on Graedel Court.

Somehow in his own mind, Jeffrey D Pulley probably considers himself to be a good person, a responsible landlord and a reputable small business owner and a responsible citizen.  Which is amazing considering that dozens if not hundreds of residents of the Hawthorne neighborhood consider him to be a crack head, a slum lord and a criminal of the lowest possible character.  They see in Jeff Pulley as a one man wrecking crew that lowered their property values, flooded the neighborhood with crime and have made them afraid to walk the streets at night.

Pulley runs a one man plumbing outfit out of an old mini-van and his home.  He used the profit from that business to help him purchase interest in the rental duplex mentioned above as well as a few other properties around Madison.  And the troubles started nearly from day one with his rental business.  The duplex in the Hawthorne neighborhood was registered with the city as just that, a duplex.  Two – two bedroom apartments contained within a single structure.  Immediately he went to work in the basement of the structure, framing out two new apartments which he never intended to license for human habitation. 

  One of those basement apartments was never completed.  The other a small one bedroom unit, he didn’t manage to basically complete, although it fell far short of building code and safety regulations required.  But codes and laws and safety regulations mean nothing to a tea bagger.  Pulley tried advertising the illegal basement apartment, which had rodent and insect issues.  In the spring when the snow thawed, or whenever a heavy summer rain would hit, water would flow across the apartment floor from the cracked and dilapidated foundation.  Unabashed, Pulley simply decided to make the most of the situation; he rented out the apartment to some undocumented workers that had helped him in his plumbing business.

But undocumented or not they quickly began to complain about the terrible living conditions.  At only fifty dollars a person per month they tried to make the most of it.  At times upwards of a dozen migrants used the apartment as a place to briefly sleep and shower before heading off to a twelve or sixteen hour workday.  They tried to stick it out there, needing to save their wages to send home to their families, not to spend it on more suitable and expensive living arrangements.  And so they tried to make do, fixing what they could themselves, asking Pulley for help with some things they couldn’t fix.  That help never came though from Pulley.

Whenever they brought up conditions in the apartment they were threatened with serious legal repercussions and so they kept quiet.  They kept quiet as the mold grew within the walls making the air nearly unbreathable.  They kept quiet as the water flowed across the floor and they kept quiet as the inadequate heating system failed to keep the temperature above fifty degree’s in the winter.  They kept quiet as they made other arrangements and moved out, one by one, to more habitable accommodations.  And all the while the neighbors watched and wondered, but for some reason never reported what they saw happening.

This is what allowed Pulley’s activity to continue on for so long.  They minded their own business even though they were aware that things were not quite kosher.  After all they have told me, they felt no need to intrude in someone else’s business and it wasn’t affecting them, not very much and not just yet.  The apartment sat empty for awhile until good fortune fell upon him.  A business associate knew someone desperately looking for an apartment…any apartment that he could afford.  We will simply call this person “Rich” and he was in a bit of a bind.  He was dependent on Social Security as his only form of income, having been diagnosed with paranoid-schizophrenia.  He was trying to escape the crime and conditions at Braxton Place, the end of the line housing for many people with nowhere else to turn in Madison.  Government run, if you could call it that, it was somewhere between a prison and a asylum in its living conditions.  Crime ridden, dirty and violent with a long history of such, it was an unfortunate home for many people with no other option.

Rich moved in aware of the conditions, but feeling that he could improve the situation and make the dark and dank basement apartment into a home.  After all he was content to live simply and without many conveniences, he just wanted a place to live in and be left alone.  Meanwhile the folks who had inhabited the upstairs apartments had become sick and tired of the illegal conditions in the building and decided to move out in search of greener pastures.

Unfazed, Pulley found some new tenants for the two ground floor, two bedroom apartments.  First he moved in a recently paroled felon, just released from prison for drug trafficking.  This person quickly went back to the only life he knew and within a week the duplex became a 24 quick stop crack house, quiet and unnoticed in the little neighborhood by the elementary school.  Confrontations between crack buyers and residents of the neighborhood soon escalated though, as can be easily predicted.  Soon matters were so out of hand and the criminal activity so blatant and rampant that the police took notice.  And so the dealer aware of his probation situation, moved out to stay away from all the legal commotion.

He was quickly replaced by another young couple that was also in the business of dealing drugs.  Less than a month later this person was shot in the face during a deal gone wrong.  Lucky to still be alive although missing an eye and looking at years of reconstructive surgeries, he continued to operate out of the duplex.  Meanwhile Jeffrey Pulley moved another dealer into the next door apartment in the duplex.  After legal troubles caused them to flee back to Chicago, Jeff Pulley moved even more crack dealers into the building.

And so things went on, month after month, year after year.  Squad cars and ambulances became a common site.  One afternoon residents returned from work to find the neighborhood cordoned off with a police SWAT team moving in.  The next door neighbor to the Pulleys rental found a sniper on their roof as a federal warrant was being served against a high profile drug trafficker.  And the crack dealers came and they went.  Sometimes moving out in the middle of the night, sometimes being hauled off in handcuffs.

And the neighborhood suffered and suffered at the hands of Jeffrey D Pulley.  Cars and homes were broken into, vandalism became rampant.  Fences were installed as well as security systems and video cameras and lights.  Property values went down even as property taxes were going up.  Police patrols increased exponentially as the once quiet neighborhood became listed as a “neighborhood in distress”  The gang units rolled through in unmarked squad cars at all hours.  Screaming and fighting in the streets became a nightly occurrence, all because of one lone tea bagger….Jeff Pulley.

Neighbors once content to let sleeping dogs lie, were now calling the police regularly.  And crack dealer after crack dealer was brought into the neighborhood by Pulley.  It soon became apparent that it was always crack, which made people finally start to realize the nature of Pulleys motivation to always have a dealer available on his rental property.  Police talked to him, a citizen’s watch group was formed and confronted Pulley, still nothing ever changed, he had to have his crack dealers around.  But not of course on Graedel Court where he and his family lived.

Finally even Jeff Pulley had to admit that the situation he created was getting far out of control.  And so he did what any tea bagger slum lord would do….he blamed somebody else.  He claimed to Rich the victim of schizophrenia living in the little basement apartment that it was his entire fault.  He blamed Rich for telling other people in the neighborhood what he overheard happening above his head in the crack apartments day after day, night after night.  He blamed the police calls on the neighbors who had spoken with Rich.  He blamed Rich for the police calls.  He blamed Rich’s friends for the calls that were made to the police because they were afraid for Rich’s safety and well-being.

Rich being schizophrenic and not having many options just tried to stay as quiet as possible and keep his head down.  And Pulley having finally cowed Rich into near paralysis took matters even further.  He told Rich that if he wanted to avoid serious trouble that he better stay locked up inside his apartment.  He was told that he couldn’t have family or friends over to see him, out of fear of increased police calls that were threatening to have the slumlords property claimed and shut down as a hazard by the city of Madison.

When I learned of what was happening with my friend Rich from my old East Side Madison neighborhood I contacted the Tenant Resource Center and they were very helpful.  I also contacted the city housing inspector and the police and told them that Rich was nearly a prisoner of Jeff Pulleys.  I called the Department of Trade and Consumer Protection and had they look into Jeffrey D Pulley.  And lo and behold Jeff promised to stop his illegal retribution against Rich, he promised the police and the government agencies that had all been alerted to his awful activities. Not surprisingly these groups all told me that they had previous experience with Pulley. I and my old neighborhood seemed like they had been saved, that life would return to its peaceful norm in the little East Side Neighborhood.  That children could safely play outside again and that folks could safely walk down the street at night.

I went back for a visit last week to see my old friend Rich, there was a sign taped on the door from Jeff Pulley which read “Nobody is allowed to see the tenant in the basement apartment” That lying tea bagger Jeff Pulley, up to his old tricks again.  I have to admit that once I saw it, although my hopes were dashed, that I wasn’t really surprised.  Expecting change from the tea party radicals and the greed driven agenda they follow without regard for the laws of the land or their fellow man, is like expecting the sun not to set or water to flow uphill.

Phone calls were made again, but not to the health inspectors, not to the building inspectors and not to the police.  And they were not made by me. The neighbors got together and took a van down to Graedel Court.  They commented on Pulley the tea baggers house, on how vulnerable it looked as it sat there.  Surrounded by dried up debris left over from the summer’s drought and heat wave, they commented on how all that dried up material just looked like a serious fire hazard waiting to happen.  They discussed the crime ridden area surrounding the house on Graedel Court and the likelihood of something occurring there.  They discussed the irony of something terrible happening at the house on Graedel Court, after all the terrible things that had been inflicted on them for years due to the owner of the house there.  I have to admit that I was surprised when they told me about the discussion they were having.  But there was nothing much I could say to these people who had been through so much. The situation had escalated beyond my ability to influence it in any positive way. It would just seem karmic for the tables to turn on the tea bagger Jeff Pulley, Scott Walkers number one fan.  Who will still tell you to this day that he is the victim in this situation, and that only a governor willing to make tough decisions can save decent landlords like him from abuse at the hands of tenants who have all the rights in Wisconsin.

To answer the obvious question of why "Rich" doesn't just move somewhere else, it is because in the midst of all this ugliness, he found something beautiful and sometimes rare in life.  He found a home, a neighborhood where he feels that he belongs.  Where he likes most everyone else and they like him and accept him for who he is.  It is something that he is working on maintaining and protecting.  Something that decent Wisconsin citizens deserve, and something the greed and anger driven members of the tea party simply are incapable of understanding.

It is truly an ugly situation that Jeffrey Pulley has created, and one that is very representational of the future of Wisconsin when radical extremists like Scott Walker are added to the picture and the law and constitution hating tools & fools of the tea party are added as well.  One tea bagger has nearly destroyed an entire neighborhood, and now the neighborhood is considering destroying the tea bagger.  That is the terrible and divided state we are in, one in which nobody is going to come out the winner if things continue as they are going.  I hope things get better for my friend Rich, I hope things improve in my old neighborhood, I hope that Jeff Pulley see’s the error of his illegal ways and changes, I hope…….

On Wisconsin!    FORWARD!!!!

"revision"

The Brett Hulsey posting is being "revisioned" with a release date of 09/19/12.  

New BFF's ? Brett Hulsey and Chief Erwin

I don’t think there is much need to explain to you my readers, that these are very troubling times in the great state of Wisconsin.  The animalistic impulses of greed and desire, coupled with the always short lived but still dangerous power of ignorance have come together.  Put together these dangers to humanity and civilization are known as the Tea Party.

Not since the World War II era has the badger of Wisconsin and the bald eagle of America gazed upon such a threat to democracy as we see from the Tea Party extremists today.  These are very important and tumultuous times, and that perhaps is an understatement.

The threat we are living and dealing with means that it is very, very important right now to be able to have faith in the integrity and conviction of those politicians, those leaders of the people, that claim to stand against the “teahadists”, the extremists whose dark cloud lingers over us all.

This being an election year means we have to know and understand, to the best of our knowledge, those who seek to be the elected leaders of the people.  Which brings us to a certain member of the assembly who is seeking re-election in November to continue his representation of the citizens of a district in downtown Madison,  I am speaking of Brett Hulsey.

Many of us in the Wisconsin Movement will remember Hulsey from the period in 2011 that began with the occupation of the Capitol, through to the spring marches and rallies that saw over 100,000 people regularly coming to the state house in opposition to the radical agenda of the far right wing extremist Governor Scott Walker.  Brett Hulsey always seemed to be there, with the marchers, with the people.  He began emerging as an important figure in the movement to preserve democracy and combat austerity and class warfare.  That was how things seemed anyway.

At first at least, as the movement wore on though, and the clamor began to subside, so did Hulsey’s fervor for the movement.  Many began to say that he was in it for the free publicity, for the photo op’s and the chances to rub elbows with important national figures who always seemed to be in Madison.  That it was all a show by somebody looking to become a comfortable career politician.

Soon a very distinct change was seen in Hulsey, he began to remove himself from the movement and began to make himself less available to his constituents.  He began to talk more about “reaching across the aisle” and to work with those who represented the Walker agenda.  It became fairly apparent that Hulsey was perhaps more interested in the status quo than anything else.  Soon even other Democratic politicians could be heard grumbling that Hulsey was a planted incumbent.  That self-service was the only service that he was truly interested in. 

As 2011 gave way to 2012 the changes in Hulsey’s attitude astonished many of his former supporters and constituents.  He began to turn on the Wisconsin Movement, complaining about tax payers coming to the Capitol to voice their opinions.  He started to work against the patriots who rallied to the Wisconsin statehouse and even began to slowly embrace the fellowship of the Walker administration more than that of his own party and the people.  He even went so far as to help compile dossiers on individual protesters and share information with the Tea Party and the ultra-conservative minority in law enforcement to harass them.

Believe it or not, that is all fine and dandy with me.  If as an elected representative Hulsey wants to switch sides or take whatever course of action he sees as being proper to his position, than that is what he should do.  The citizens will review his actions and vote according to what they perceive to be their own best interests, as well as the interests of the state and its future.

But now there is some deeply disturbing information coming out about Hulsey, and it is coming from law enforcement and local government.  This first came to my attention when I learned that Hulsey had pleaded no contest to a charge of disorderly conduct in order to avoid a court trial that would have ruined his chances for re-election.  Hulsey was convicted after his plea of no contest, of disorderly conduct from an incident involving a young boy at a public beach in Madison recently.

http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/wkow/12-186706-1.pdf

In all fairness Brett Hulsey still claims that he is 100% innocent regardless of his plea of no contest.  But what type of person destroys evidence (the photo’s he took on his smartphone at the beach) when there is an investigation ongoing?

What type of person in this day and age feels that it is okay to engage in this type of behavior with young children that you don’t even know?

What type of person has a history of such behavior, albeit not always with children involved, to the extent that they are under watch by local authorities?

What type of leader, of elected official, thinks that this is acceptable behavior for a representative of the people?  That doesn’t understand that what they are doing is the kind of thing that raise’s very strong, and justifiably so, fears that the people may have a predator in their midst?

What type of person does what Hulsey recently did, and instead of owning up to a terrible lack of judgment over these recent matters, instead chooses to blame everyone from city and county government, chooses to blame the Office of the Mayor as well as private citizens for the trouble that he is now in? Although it does appear to be true that a allegation of previous and related misconduct by Hulsey was a fabrication of somebody within the Mayor's office pool.

Mayor Soglin so infuriated by Brett Hulsey and his blaming of every other person involved, felt the angered need to point out a big hole in Hulsey’s unique version of what transpired that day.  Hizzoner (Mayor Soglin) pointed out that Hulsey could not have been taking a picture of a sailboat against the sunset on the day in question, as the sun was nowhere in the sky past the sailboat from the beach, but rather, would have been over Hulsey’s shoulder. 

http://www.wtdy.com/Madison-Mayor-Paul-Soglin-responds-to-Hulsey-accus/14223463

Even if everything is incredible coincidence, even if all of the above taken together only adds up to Hulsey being a victim of repeated circumstance, he is still guilty.  Guilty of having a complete and total lack of foresight.  Guilty of incredibly poor and repeatedly at that, decision making skills.  Guilty of not knowing the difference between the appearance of right and wrong.  Guilty of somehow thinking that because he holds elected office, that he can behave any way that he wants AND should be allowed to do so in the future.  Which is exactly what I infer from his total lack of admittance to ANY wrongdoing at any level.

In my mind that is not the type of person I would trust to walk my dog, let alone be responsible for the wellbeing of the voters, of individuals, of couples, of children, as a leader of the people.  

I do feel however, that if he is capable of making a single good decision, that he should abandon his campaign for re-election.    

ESPECIALLY when you consider the reports that I have been getting from others that Hulsey is making a important new friend in his fight to keep activists, protesters and the Solidarity Sing Along out of the capitol building.  And that person is the highly controversial and extremist political appointee to the office of Chief of Capitol Police, Dave Erwin.  That is crossing a line that can not ever be forgiven by any reasonable person.  Teaming up with Erwin?  Really?

Chief Erwin that harasses citizens at their homes and places of work to intimidate them from returning to the Capitol building to exercise their constitutional rights.  Erwin who is a favorite on right wing extremist media sources like the McIver Institute?  Erwin who's policies nearly led to the death of a disabled female veteran. Erwin who defames the entire Capitol Police & Security force.  Erwin who has been denounced by city government, by the sheriff's union, by the police union.  This is your new friend Hulsey-shame on you!  That you would team with Erwin clearly demonstrates that you are opposed to the will of your constituents and that you in no way represent the interests of the 78th district.

Now it is true that you will find Hulsey's name on one of the letters sent to Chief Erwin asking for clarification of his legal stance for issuing citations and/or arresting people at the Capitol.  Many representatives signed at least one of those letters.  That is merely a smoke screen and I am not fooled for one instance by it.  By your actions are you known and the actions that Hulsey has been taking for over a year now clearly shows where he stands.  You cant shake the devil's hand and say that you are only kidding.  And besides, we all know that Chief Erwin will not meet with Democrat Senators or Representatives to discuss policy, he always refers them to his PR person.  So if he is meeting with Hulsey, then it has to be because the subject matter they are discussing fits Erwin's agenda.

That is why the Democratic Party has been discussing cutting off all support for Hulsey.  From what sources in The DPW tell me they no longer see Hulsey as representing the interests of the party.  They see him as a growing source of conflict against cohesion and unity, and do not want any involvement in his re-election campaign.  And I have to agree with that sentiment,  it is time for Hulsey to abandon his campaign for the good of the district and the party.  

Especially when one considers that there is no Tea Party extremist in his district assembly race to worry about somehow winning if he were to drop out.  The people have a qualified and in my opinion, excellent choice to replace Brett Hulsey in the legislature with fresh blood in  the young new comer Jonathan Dedering, the green party candidate. 

I have spoken with Dedering and find him to be a likable, trustworthy and a progressive spirit that is wise and capable beyond his years and is deserving of representing the constituents of his district, as well as of the state as a member of the legislature.  If you are not familiar with Dedering I am including a link to his campaign site and urge you to take a look at all that he has to offer. 

https://www.facebook.com/dederingforwi

Those who know me personally, know that I am all about inclusion and cohesion in the Wisconsin Movement.  That I am dedicated to keeping us all together in this fight, of the majority of citizens versus the greedy and ignorant few.  But in this case I can see no possible way to defend Brett Hulsey and urge you to vote for Dedering.  I believe that Dedering is the one who can help deliver us to a brighter and more prosperous future. Brett Hulsey has more than proven himself to be a threat to integrity in government as well as a threat to the will of the people being the law of the land.   And I am not the only one that feels this way.

On Wisconsin!    FORWARD!!!!