UPDATE: Hey kids, just received word from Capitol Police that our permit for the Blaska Bloggers sing-along at the Capitol Rotunda has been approved for this noon from 12 to 12:30. We're legal! We have a permit and they don't. Let's assemble at 11:45 this morning.
I have congratulated my friend and liberal acquaintance Bill Lueders on his scoop on the World Judicial Wrestling Federation smackdown in the state capitol. Justice David Prosser, it seems, put his hands around Justice Ann Walsh Bradley;s neck in a conference in her office and Bradley lived to tell about it.
Or not.
According to others, Bradley charged Prosser, who raised his hands to defend himself and made contact with her neck, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports today.
I have asked Bill these questions:
A major part of this developing story is the identity of the "three knowledgeable sources" who "must maintain their professional relationships." Who be they? I wrote that "my inescapable conclusion" is that they are Bradley, Chief Justice Abrahamson, and their liberal court ally, Justice Patrick Crooks.
A second question: did one or more of those three initiate contact with you?
Third: Did you meet with all three simultaneously?
Bill responded this Sunday afternoon:
The sources are people we considered reliable. We very carefully represented that they alleged certain events. They did. Justice Bradley has now made the same allegation in her comments to the Journal Sentinel.Your 'inescapable conclusion' is incorrect.Beyond that I have nothing more to say.
As I read Bill's response, he does not deny that one or two of his informants could have been justices from the liberal wing. To which he responded:
I'm saying that our sources spoke on condition that they not be named, to preserve professional relationships, and we intend to honor our commitment to them.
I had guessed that Bill would claim journalistic confidentiality but I asked him to consider that the Ann Walsh Bradley camp has incentive to spin the story its way, knowing that the whole story would emerge. A pre-emptive strike. Otherwise, why not come out with it the day it occurred, which seems to have been Monday, June 13, the day before the court released its decision the the collective bargaining reforms?
I wrote to Lueders:
Your informants do not come with entirely clean hands. It is highly unlikely that this story is as monochromatic as it first seems. Consider also the unprecedented snarkiness Abrahamson directed at Prosser by name in her angry dissent. [See: Blaska's Blog rules who is partisan ...] I have read a fair number of high court cases from both the state and federal courts and never seen such personal vituperation. Unless you are suggesting that Abrahamson wrote that the very day before the decision was released.
Two final questions: do you have a good journalistic relationship with Prosser? Do you feel you held Prosser unfairly to a higher standard than his opponent in the recent court election?
The last reference is to Lueder's election eve Isthmus article, "David Prosser waffles on vow to denounce dishonest ads in Wisconsin Supreme Court race."
Bill, one of the finest partisan advocacy journalists in Wisconsin, did not criticize Kloppenburg for refusing to denounce an ad claiming Prosser protected pederast priests, even though the victim of the sexual abuse himself called for her to pull the ad. The reason for this seeming double standard, Bill subsequently explained to me, is that Kloppenburg never promised to denounce dishonest claims.
I get it, now: do not promise to wage a clean campaign and you won't be called to task for running a dirty campaign.
Sing along with Dave - Monday's contingency plan
"Whose Capitol? Our Capitol!" The Left has been chanting that every weekday over the noon hour since late February.Could we conservatives borrow the Capitol for one hour?
It appears we will have to wait our turn because we will not do this without a permit.
I wanted to displace the Solidarity Singers who have been singing sad songs of dissent in the Capitol Rotunda for at least four months now -- without a permit! Who have driven the Red Cross Blood Drive, which did have a permit, out of the Capitol.
Blaska's Blog submitted a permit application to Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs for a sing-along at the Capitol Rotunda this Monday, June 27. I hand-delivered my application shortly before noon on Thursday, June 23. Have not heard back. Won't do it without a valid permit. That's the kind of people we are.
I propose this instead. Do come to the Capitol as planned this Monday. Be there at 11:45 a.m. Bring your sheet music -- make 10 copies -- and signs (sans sticks). I'll do likewise. We'll stand silently in a group in the middle of the singers -- unless they have a permit for that day -- holding our pro-Walker signs but saying nothing. My sign will read "Can we have our Capitol back?"
If we are granted a permit at the last minute, then we'll sing. Meanwhile, I'll keep the pressure on Chief Tubbs to give us our day.
When and if we are permitted
And I'll expect the Solidarity Singers to move along. When and if we are granted a permit, I want some guarantee from Capitol Police that our First Amendment rights will not be traduced. The Blaska Bloggers reserve the right to police their ranks of uninvited and unwelcome participants and to remove competing noisemakers. The Left can get its own permit; we've waited patiently and obediently for the chance to exercise our rights. We may ask Capitol Police to post a $100 surety bond to assure that our free speech rights are upheld.
Can conservatives carry a tune? Probably not. I'm thinking songs like "God Bless America," the theme to the Flintstones, Gilligan's Island and -- in honor of wheelchair-bound patriot Dave Zien, "Born to be Wild!" Sunny Schubert suggests the Beatles' "Taxman." The brilliant Larry Kaufmann has penned to Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower," set at Rockford's Clocktower Inn. Ramona Weakland Warden suggests "Proud to be an American" (can anyone but Lee Greenwood actually sing that song? Lot of high notes), Battle Hymn of the Republic (sung to the tune of Solidarity Forever), and the Marine Corps Hymn.
Wear your FitzWalkerStan colors! Bring your pro-freedom signs. Who is with me? What other songs should be included in our Patriot Chorus?
Liberal math = got socialism?
One Scot Ross writes that Gov. Walker's budget includes tax breaks for corporations and the rich "by taking from the middle class."
Think about that for just a second -- which likely is longer than One Scot did. Did Governor Walker raise taxes on individual income tax payers? No he did not. Did he raise the sales tax? No. Is he mandating restraints on property taxes? Yes. Only a progressive/liberal is able to construe a tax reduction to encourage job creation as "costing" anything.
Speaking of encouraging business, a Democratic light bulb moment: "Taxes do drive employers' decisions on jobs," writes the Chicago Tribune on the regime's war on employers in Illinois. Demo Gov. Patrick Quinn has been bribing some of the state's iconic companies -- Sears, Caterpillar, Motorola -- not to move out of the state with individual incentive packages to offset his legislature's across-the-board tax hikes. Good for the big guys but what about the mom and pops?
Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel betrays his liberal bias when he calls U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson a "big spender and taker." Why, because he received $10 million in deferred compensation from the company he co-owns and operates. No tax dollars -- just proceeds from a well-run company. Is that to be penalized? Love RoJo's response to Bice: "It's a private business. I've complied with all the disclosure laws, and I don't have to explain it any further to someone like you."
Do ATM machines "cost" jobs? Does a manufacturer know something about manufacturing? Is America's economy screwed, blued and tatooed?
What kind of country can prohibit a company from opening a new plant due to political correctness? Answer: the United States of America. Obama's NLRB does not want Boeing to open a plant in South Carolina because that state allows employees to decide for themselves whether they want to join a labor union.
Look mom, no mirrors. The Republican state budget decreases taxes. That is why it is so ironic than Comrade Nichols calls the budget "the most fiscally and economically irresponsible in Wisconsin history. One of his sources is Rep. Mark Pocan who, as co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee in the Doyle regime, authorized the illegal $20 million raid on the Patients Compensation Fund, which the courts ordered to be repaid.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel today gets it correct right away in the lede paragraph of its news story: the Republican budget will "put the state's long-term finances in the best shape they've been in for at least 15 years."
Legislative Fiscal Bureau LFB memo "State Tax and Fee Modifications"
