Walker and all Wisconsin Republicans should be indicted for treason
One year ago today, Gov. Scott Walker and his cronies “dropped the bomb” and announced they would strip the rights away from over 175,000 working Wisconsinites. Since that historic day we have learned much more about the criminals that are currently engaged in the hostile takeover of the government of Wisconsin.
Throughout the year, Walker has been colluding with corporations, State and National Republicans, State Patrol and corporate media to arrest those who protest against the takeover. He schemes to get illegal bills pushed through the legislature at lightening speed that strip protection from people and resources, to funnel funds into privatized accounts with no public oversight, all the while breaking county, state and federal rules, statutes and the constitution while lying the entire time, up to the present day. Never before has one state been the victim of and witness to such criminal activity on such a wide-scale and rapid pace perpetrated by fascists who are robbing us blind, right before our eyes.
The saga continues. On February 9, 2012 the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Walker and State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen have decided to use the portion of its $140 million share of a national settlement over foreclosure and mortgage-servicing frauds designated for use by the state to balance the state budget, as opposed to utilizing it for its intended use, helping troubled homeowners who have been abused by mortgage companies and Wall Street.
This executive decision is in keeping with the fiscal decisions Walker has made throughout his first year in office. He and his Republican supporters in the legislature have committed crime after crime, using corporate media to fill the airwaves with lies and cover-ups about their actions, and suppressing the truth about what is actually going on in Wisconsin government.
Since the day he “dropped the bomb”— his ALEC-driven “Budget Repair Bill” — Scott Walker began committing perjury. Wisconsin citizens knew immediately that something was terribly wrong. After weeks of rallies at the capital, the hundreds of thousands of people who protested returned to work to wait for the day in November when a recall could begin. Throughout two months of deep Wisconsin winter and some of the most stringent recall rules of any state in the union, almost 2,000,000 signatures were collected for the recalls of Walker, Lt. Governor Kleefisch, and four Republicans senators.
Throughout the year, Koch and other rightwing funded propaganda has washed over the state like a tsunami. Some might call it “media fraud.” As millions of people rallied to protect the state from this hostile takeover, services were being cut, legislation was being rammed through at a record pace, and Walker and his cronies were fundraising millions of out-of-state dollars to attack the recall: the rightful and legal process people have been given to remove corrupt elected officials. At every turn, Walker has trumpeted his achievements in a Pinocchio-like manner, and the people of the state have sat helpless as the one-term, kamikaze, ALEC-filled Republican majority in both houses have passed bill after bill to steal the funds, resources, and the health and well-being from them.
Last week, hard evidence of the collusion was made public, as the redistricting maps drawn up by Republicans included signed secrecy agreements and agreeing to use their majority to get the illegal maps passed into law.
With the announcement that he would be using part of the mortgage relief fund to balance the state budget, Walker once again perjures himself, much like he did when he insisted collective bargaining was bankrupting the state. (This was later recanted before a Federal Senate Oversight Committee in April 2011 when Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D) forced Walker to tell the truth—that collective bargaining had no impact on the budget.)
In Walker’s latest “It’s Working” newsletter, he never once states that he will be taking over $30M of the settlement and using it to balance the budget. Instead he claims himself to have “turned a $3.6 billion budget deficit into a surplus, without raising taxes or cutting essential services …” Except, according to fundraising letters to Republican donors, and now in an official letter to the federal government, the Walker administration is admitting that the over $3 billion deficit for 2012-13 still exists.
When will the citizens of Wisconsin break through this illegal hostile takeover and bring justice? The wheels are starting to turn, as two more of his staff were indicted last week.
Keep educating your friends and neighbors. Keep researching. Keeping calling your legislators and demand they be held accountable. Keep engaged. Keep protesting, singing, drumming and demanding what is rightfully ours: our government and open and equal access to it.
Justice is prevailing, as long as we all stand up, fight back.
Sign this petition to demand that ALEC-GTAC authored AB 426, which was passed behind closed doors on January 26, 2012 be rescinded as null and void.
Joseph McCarthy was the last Wisconsin politician to attempt such a takeover. The good news is, he failed, too.
Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative 