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!!!!