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Scott Walker Dumped As Koch Candidate After Interview Fiasco
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/04/22/walker-dumped/
Author: Nathaniel Downes April 22, 2015 6:21 pm
Always a bridesmaid, never a bride, huh Scott? After selecting the Wisconsin governor to be the 2016 Republican candidate for President, the Koch Brothers appear to be suffering from buyers remorse. Rather than a candidate they could use as a sock puppet, to control every single movement and action of, Walker has shown himself uncontrollable, and not in a good way.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Scott Walker moved not only to curb illegal immigration, but to crack down on legal immigration as well. Citing well-known nativist Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama as his influence on immigration reform, he was quite clear, under a Walker Administration, immigrants are not welcome.
This of course is a show stopper for the Koch Brothers, who are decidedly pro-immigration. Shortly after Walkers comments came out, the two brothers announced that they would now hold an audition to replace him as the Republican nominee.
Like a jilted bride, now Scott Walker is adrift. The widespread right-wing media support is evaporating as if by magic, with him loved one minute, then quickly jilted as they seek a new dance partner. The Koch Brothers now have to scramble as their long-term plans need adjusting on no notice – and rush moves produce bad results.
Elections take a long time, with candidates establishing strategies, organizations, and setting wheels into motion months if not years ahead of time. By changing horse mid-race, now they lose their leverage to call the shots. They must integrate themselves in to another campaign, to follow that candidates already in motion engine. It is likely the worst thing which could have happened to them. And it is something which was inevitable due to the nature of their influence.
Money in politics is a bad road, the more money in politics the worse it gets. Buying influence, legal bribery really, means that the opposing side needs to increase their spending, creating a monetary arms race. The money suppliers then have to deal with candidates who are only pandering to their faces to get access to their cash reserves, but who are unreliable, or worse, a fanatic to fringe ideals. As more money is introduced in to these races, the harder it is for the money to be controlled. Eventually donors stop being able to peddle influence, they are now just walking ATM’s for candidates to bully. After all, if they don’t bankroll this candidate, the other guy will be bankrolled by their ideological enemies. It becomes a dance of death, with no end in sight.
Walker’s campaign without the Koch Brothers behind it lacks the power and influence to have any real impact. His positions are out of touch with the American public, and are against the very founding of this country. Now the Koch Brothers attempt to use him as the marionette candidate has fallen apart, and they are left scrambling. If they wised up, they would abandon the campaign entirely. In the game of money in politics, the only way to win is not to play at all
wow, thx
excellent picks EZ
you obviously suffer from logorrhea and just can't stop advertising your ignorance can you.
Wisconsin may not have won the final game, but the Badgers won the hearts and respect of countless millions. From The New Yorker: "Rooting for Wisconsin felt good—almost as good as rooting against Duke. The players were goofy and fun and memorable. They befriended the press-conference stenographer and loved vocabulary words; their star player wore a GoPro strapped to his chest while the team celebrated winning each stage of the tournament." http://nyr.kr/1IFWcZ4
All three refs should be given a flagrant 2.......OK, now I'm over it.
fans rioting on State St, police in riot gear....NOT....fans havin a dance party on State St....proud to be a Badger fan.
Congrat AZ, Duke responded well when we got up 9
talk about cheap entertainment....I'm puttin miles on pacing
Good luck tonight to my favorite Dukie....AZ....
Go Badgers!
and the fans were skipping down State St. in Madison
Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Patrick Reed, Jimmy Walker and Dustin Johnson......277
I'll be pulling for you big time Tree!
This is an interesting article about all the state's politics. A quote: "Dane County added almost 20,000 jobs in the 10 years ending in 2013 — more than half of the state's new job total, according to a recent Journal Sentinel tabulation. Sweet irony — this was three times the performance of arch-conservative Waukesha County."
http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/wisconsin-has-had-enough-
pf-nostalgia-politics-b99473550z1-298621371.html
Wisconsin has had enough of nostalgia politics
Because single-party rule inevitably produces arrogance and excess, Wisconsin needs a competitive Democratic Party.
David Haynes, the Journal Sentinel's editorial page editor, recently pointed out that the vanquished Democrats are in a deep political hole and in need of a thorough re-examination of their beliefs.
What might they consider?
First, dial back the vitriol. The hatred and contempt they show for Gov. Scott Walker has been repudiated by the voters. Instead, they should stick to the issues. Look to the future. Embrace the millennials. Champion the tech sector. Celebrate start-ups and entrepreneurs. Support the Ubers of the sharing economy. Get real about unions. Give tough love (and financial support) to public education. Welcome immigrants. Offer a helping hand to the poor.
Most of all, accept the necessity of change. Wisconsin hasn't. Too often, our political and economic leaders act as if they're historical re-enactors at Old World Wisconsin. They refight the old battles when the world — and the economy — has moved on.
This is a problem. A strong case can be made that Wisconsin clings to the past and has not learned the lessons of the brutal recession of the early 1980s. That legacy of Rust Belt deindustrialization — tens of thousand of high-paying manufacturing jobs lost — still haunts the Wisconsin economy 35 years later.
The latest bad news — Wisconsin has one of the worst job-creation records in the nation — reiterates what we already know. Save for a brief uptick in the 1990s, Wisconsin has gone from being the economic "star of the Snowbelt," as The Wall Street Journal put it in 1977, to the tail on the donkey in 2015.
Enough already.
The rearview mirror strategies of the Republicans and their business cohort, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, haven't succeeded. Single-minded policies aimed at cutting taxes and regulations may boost the bottom line of Wisconsin's largest and most venerable corporations, but research shows that mature industries don't generate many new jobs.
"In every single state, in every single metro area, young firms create the most jobs," says Dane Stangler, vice president of research and policy at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which advocates for start-up businesses.
Democrats need to step up and embrace the start-up community. These new faces, often millennials, are not invested in the old sectarian wars. They are Wisconsin's future, especially the young techies in Madison and Milwaukee. They get it.
Economies evolve. Sometimes, like now, it happens at dizzying speed. With the inevitable casualties come opportunities. Our leaders seem clueless in the new century.
In the name of economic development, they engaged in political payback by vanquishing private-sector unions that are already largely irrelevant. In the name of economic development, they rewrote state environmental law to pursue a pipe dream — a quintessential 19th century enterprise, iron ore mining — that vanished in a puff of smoke before the first shovel was turned.
So much time and effort wasted. But dead-end strategies are what we get from the ruling Republicans and WMC. Can the Democrats do better? There is certainly opportunity if they shed their baggage. Public employee unions might even be reborn if they recast themselves as professional groups dedicated to public service and good government as well as to economic gain.
"The future has arrived — it's just not evenly distributed yet," the science fiction writer William Gibson famously said. This is Wisconsin's plight. The Madison region has stepped into the future with great tech companies such as Epic Systems, Exact Sciences and Promega, all led by executives who favor Democrats. Yes, the lefter-than-thou Madison region is now Wisconsin's capitalist engine.
Dane County added almost 20,000 jobs in the 10 years ending in 2013 — more than half of the state's new job total, according to a recent Journal Sentinel tabulation. Sweet irony — this was three times the performance of arch-conservative Waukesha County.
But Dane County's boom is no guarantee of eventual Democratic ascendancy. The party's problems are many, including an abiding nostalgia for outdated class politics. To prosper, Wisconsin needs a transcendent political disruption to deal with our economic disruption. Otherwise, we'll remain mired in the failed policies of nostalgic Republicans.
Marc Eisen writes about technology from Madison.
I can't say I wasn't thinking that the refs were gonna decide the game but the guys wouldn't let them and reached back for a little extra and pulled it out. Not in my lifetime did I ever think we would be in this spot. I am beyond thrilled.
Tiger's in....really hope he competes!
Robert Streb plz & ty
I've looked at a lot of his stuff and think he's hilarious....can't wait.
I think I got a contact high just listening.......can't tell you entertained I was....thx mon
Black Men United - U Will Know (Live At The AMA"S)
Michael Winslow - Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin
All About That Bass - Postmodern Jukebox European Tour Version
Justin Thomas please
Asshat of the Day:
Ted Cruz says "I want to be your President!"
Ted Cruz forgets to buy tedcruz.com
Doh!
You can smell the stupid from here. smile emoticon
http://www.tedcruz.com/
I almost feel bad for Republican voters. Which dangerous, idiot, mouth breathing asshat are you going to vote for? Could it be today's Asshat of the Day:
Ted Cruz.
(AHoTD hat tip: Angela Hall)
what a tool, too bad she resigned, they deserve each other. waiting for the crash and burn.
It is a nugget!
Justin Thomas plz & thx
Carlos Ortiz plz & thx
Day plx & thx
he's killing us AZ and the hits just keep coming
Dead Zone II............
"Another great idea from Scooter. He wants to cut the budget for the renewable energy research center at UW-Madison. In his budget, Scooter is proposing to eliminate $8.1 million over two years and a total of 35 positions from a bioenergy program. These reductions are separate from his proposal to cut $300 million from the University of Wisconsin System over the next two years.The problem with this research center is that it will reduce the state's reliance on coal, oil, and natural gas. This doesn't go over well with the dirty fossil fuel giants like the Koch gang. Walker must obey his false gods, the 'Golden Kochs'. Just more proof of Walker's love of himself, the filthy rich, and the dirty fossil fuel giants. He doesn't care
about Wisconsin or its citizens. The truth is, he doesn't care about any other human being, or our nation as a whole. He only cares about rubbing elbows with billionaires, power, and padding his pockets with dirty donor money."
http://m.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/scott-walker-wants-to-end-funding-for-renewable-energy-program-b99452612z1-294532231.html
exactly!
full movie.....
I have never ever hated anyone like I hate this moron.....This should be his campaign ad.....
My wife said there was a guy in shorts today at Redbox getting a movie....lol
Walker the piss-ant should have never survived the 1st recall..... I'm still smh
AZ, LOL I can kinda see why they do that in Florida because it's a wet cold, not sure if this makes sense but I've always said 45 degrees in florida is a lot colder that 45 in WI....hell, 62 where you are? I'd take 365 of those.
PS it was -12 this morning and we still had a few thousand at the Capitol
It always amazes me when I take a little golf vacation to FLA Tex or AZ in March or April and it's in the low 50's and I'm in short sleeve and shorts and the locals have on their parkas.
well, that was entertaining, the couple rocked uptown funk, and I'm sorry but my car would be irrelevant till spring.
RIP Spock
Leonard Nimoy's Cameo on The Big Bang Theory
This is all if he wins the nomination which as long as he is a good puppet I'm betting he does.
He's won where he should have been destroyed, not sure how, never should have. He's got an unlimited amount of Koch $$ thrown at him because he'll do whatever they say or want. They will invest huge money to win. He's polar opposite of Obama and is hated by progressives as fiercely as the right hates Obama. It will be an ugly campaign.
I believe it will take a strong candidate to beat him and I'm not sure who that is.
The Dangerous Candidacy of Scott Walker
http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/dangerous-candidacy-scott-walker?mbid=social_facebook
Let’s stipulate up front that Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, is an odious politician whose ascension to the Presidency would be a disaster.
Set aside, for a moment, his repeated refusal, in the past few days, to say whether he believes that President Obama loves America, or whether he believes that the President is a Christian, and look instead at Walker’s record running what used to be one of America’s more progressive states. Having cut taxes for the wealthy and stripped many of Wisconsin’s public-sector unions of their collective-bargaining rights, he is now preparing to sign a legislative bill that would cripple unions in the private sector. Many wealthy conservatives, such as the Koch brothers, who have funnelled a lot of money to groups supporting Walker, regard him as someone who’s turning his state into a showcase for what they want the rest of America to look like.
But just how threatening is he? If you’ve been following the political news during the past week, you may well have the impression that he’s stumbling in his campaign for the 2016 G.O.P. nomination. Among the political commentariat, the consensus of opinion is that Walker’s repeated refusal to distance himself from Rudy Giuliani’s incendiary comments about Obama, and his subsequent encounter with the Washington Post’s Dan Balz and Robert Costa, during which he appeared to question Obama’s religious faith and took some shots at the media for asking him silly questions, weren’t merely reprehensible: they were serious gaffes that raised questions about Walker’s political abilities.
It wasn’t just liberal columnists who piled on. In a column at the Daily Beast, Matt Lewis, who also writes for the Daily Caller, said that Walker’s comments raised the question of whether he “might not be ready for prime time on the national stage.” Lewis went on: “Conservatives should be worried that Walker hasn’t proven capable of navigating these land mines.” MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, who is a former G.O.P. congressman, wrote at Politico: “Good candidates know how to make dumb questions look, well, dumb.”
Rather than deflecting the reporters’ queries about Obama’s beliefs, as other Republicans had done, Walker used them to send a none-too-subtle message to Republican voters. His refusal to say whether Obama was a Christian wasn’t merely a shot at a hostile media. As Dana Milbank, of the Washington Post noted, it allowed Walker to “wink and nod at the far-right fringe where people really believe that Obama is a Muslim from Kenya who hates America.” Milbank also wrote that Walker was “refusing to grant his opponent legitimacy as an American and a Christian.”
In a more just world, Walker’s indecent and craven antics would disqualify him from playing any further role in the Presidential race. But in the current political environment, his tactics, far from hurting him, may well bolster a candidacy that is already thriving.
Having cemented his reputation as an economic conservative, Walker is busy making a concerted effort to win over social conservatives and evangelical Christians, some of whom apparently believe that Obama is the Antichrist (or perhaps the Seventh King). Earlier this month, during a trip to London, he refused to say whether he believed in evolution, commenting: “That’s a question a politician shouldn’t be involved in, one way or the other.” In addition to making that hat tip to the Book of Genesis brigade, Walker has been reiterating his opposition to gay marriage and taking a notably harder line on abortion than he did during his gubernatorial reëlection campaign, last year. In a recent meeting with Iowa Republicans, the Times reported earlier this week, he stressed his support for a “personhood amendment” that would define life as beginning at conception and effectively outlaw the termination of pregnancies.
Evaluated in this context, Walker’s comments, or refusals to comment, about Obama’s beliefs look less like gaffes and more like carefully considered elements of a larger plan—and one that’s working for him. On Tuesday, the research firm Public Policy Polling released the results of a new national survey of Republican voters, which showed Walker leading the G.O.P. race, with twenty-five per cent of the vote. He was seven percentage points ahead of the candidate in second place, Ben Carson, the author and neurosurgeon, and eight percentage points ahead of Jeb Bush. “Walker is climbing fast in the polling because of his appeal to the most conservative elements of the Republican electorate,” said P.P.P. “Among ‘very conservative’ voters he leads with 37% to 19% for Carson, 12% for Bush, and 11% for Huckabee.”
This is just one poll, and the sample size was small—three hundred and sixteen—but recent state-level polls also show Walker near or in the lead. In California, according to the highly respected Field poll, he’s favored by eighteen per cent of Republicans. Bush is in second place with sixteen per cent, and Rand Paul is in third place with ten per cent. In Texas, a survey carried out by the University of Texas at Austin shows Walker running second, but he’s trailing local boy Ted Cruz by just one percentage point. When a previous poll was taken, in October, only two per cent of Texan Republicans favored Walker; now, he’s standing at nineteen per cent. In South Carolina, according to another P.P.P. survey, he’s also running second, just one point behind Bush, and leading Lindsey Graham, the state’s senior representative in the U.S. Senate.
It’s still early, very early, of course. But Walker is an ambitious and determined politician who has already been through one tough race—his 2012 recall election—that subjected him to a great deal of media attention and hostility from Democrats. Thanks to his ties to the conservative plutocracy, he’s almost certainly going to have some serious money behind him, and he is trying to pitch his campaign in the sweet spot of G.O.P. primaries, where conservatism and antagonism toward coastal élites meets electability. He has the advantage of youthfulness, at age forty-seven, and, finally, as he pointed out to a convention of Christian broadcasters on Monday, he is, “unlike some out there,” a self-made fellow who “didn’t inherit fame or fortune from my family.” That jab was presumably aimed at Jeb Bush, but if Walker were to get the G.O.P. nomination, it could be modified and directed at Hillary Clinton, assuming that she wins the Democratic nomination.
For all his awfulness, Walker is a serious contender. We’d better get used to it.