Building a Court They Can Bend to Their Will]
Walker does more than claim to be a Creationist in order to secure the votes of the Religious Right. He’s working on the other branches of government as well.
Walker and his big business funders have taken a series of steps to undermine the judicial branch in Wisconsin – just as the state’s Supreme Court is about to take up a case involving a criminal investigation of Walker and some of those same funders. In short, Walker and his friends are setting out to create a court they can bend to their will.
For starters:
For 126 years the chief justice has been chosen by seniority. Under that system, Shirley Abrahamson has held that post since 1996. In Wisconsin, Supreme Court justices are elected – and the voters reelected Abrahamson to another 10-year term as Chief Justice in 2009. But now the state constitution has been amended so the justices will elect their chief.
And guess what. The majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court is currently Conservative.
But that’s not all:
The conservative majority on the court lowered the court’s conflict-of-interest standards. They approved changes in requirements for when justices must “recuse” themselves – that is, decline to participate in a case. Now special interests can appear before judges to whom they’ve made campaign contributions – and they can give money to judges even as those judges are presiding over cases to which the donors are parties.
Years ago my mother worked at the Milwaukee County Courthouse and she knew Scott Walker (he was a County Executive or some such title at the time). She had little (or no) respect for him. She said he was a sleezy, slimely goofball. Sadly she passed away two years ago at the age of 92. I was with her in the hospital shortly before that and it happened that the TV in the hospital room had the news on when Scott Walker came on the screen. In spite of the fact she was passing in and out of consciousness and barely remembered who I was at times, she glanced at the screen and said, “Oh, there’s that goofball Walker".
Sorry to say though, this is exactly what needs to happen. When conservatives are allowed to nickel and dime their way to power no one notices and it becomes very easy to blame both sides. AND like with the current congress, they can easily blame Obama for everything. But when they have full control, it will be obvious who’s to blame.
As for Walker being a slimebag, I don’t doubt it for a minute. That’s probably exactly how the fascists such as the Kochs work. They find these morons, the scummier the better, who know they’ve got nothing going for them, so when someone makes them feel important, throws money at them, etc they just say yessir can I have another.
I know this is somewhat out of date, but it was only recently brought to my attention. While the nation has been temporarily saved from a Walker Presidency, he continues to be an embarrassment to the state of Wisconsin.
Scott Walker takes $250 million from the University of Wisconsin, Gives $250 million to Billionaire Sports Team Owners]
Is it a surprise that Walker is known in Wisconsin (among other things) as the Anti-Education Governor? Is it a surprise to anyone that Republicans are anti-education? If we were a nation of thinking and reasoning adults, who would vote for a Republican?
Wisconsin is an odd state. It has a history of strong progressiveness. But lately they have been overwhelmed, badly, by extremists from the radical right. I guess there aren’t many middle of the roaders there.
Wisconsin is an odd state. It has a history of strong progressiveness. But lately they have been overwhelmed, badly, by extremists from the radical right.It went the way of Canada], Australia's] not faring much better these days :down: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scott Walker takes $250 million from the University of Wisconsin, Gives $250 million to Billionaire Sports Team Owners]Says it all, right there.