When Roger West first launched the progressive political blog "News From The Other Side" in May 2010, he could hardly have predicted the impact that his venture would have on the media and political debate. As the New Media emerged as a counterbalance to established media sources, Roger wrote his copious blogs about national politics, the tea party movement, mid-term elections, and the failings of the radical right to the vanguard of the New Media movement. Roger West's efforts as a leading blogger have tremendous reach. NFTOS has led the effort to bring accountability to mainstream media sources such as FOX NEWS, Breitbart's "Big Journalism.
Roger's breadth of experience, engaging style, and cultivation of loyal readership - over 92 million visitors - give him unique insight into the past, present, and future of the New Media and political rhetoric that exists in our society today.
What we are against:
Radical Right Wing Agendas
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Donald J. Trump
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We are for:
Global and Econmoic Security
Social and Economic Justice
Media Accountability
THE RESISTANCE
Wisconsin voters report receiving robocalls telling them not to vote.
FromEau Claire to Beloit, voters across Wisconsin are relaying stories via Twitter, Facebook and online message boards about anonymous “robocalls” from allies of Scott Walker, telling them–incorrectly–that if they signed petitions to recall Governor Walker, their vote in today’s crucial election has been recorded.
An NBC reporter tweeted that a family friend was one recipient of the call:
Tom Barrett, the mayor of Milwaukee and the Democratic nominee to unseat Governor Scott Walker,told MSNBC host Ed Schultz last night that his campaign began receiving complaints yesterday that voters had been contacted with the misinformation. This morning, Salon reported on the robocalls too, and included comments from Carol Gibbons, a Wisconsin resident who got the call herself. And a local CBS affiliate is even reporting that the caller sounds eerily similar to Tom Barrett, suggesting the group behind the call may have hired a Barrett impersonator.
So far no recording of the call has surfaced, but the reports from voters was enough to prompt the Barrett campaign to make calls of its own, warning voters not to listen to the first call. For its part, the Walker campaign denied any involvement in or knowledge of the robocall or who was behind it.
Election day antics were a near certainty in Wisconsin. In the last week, reports of other campaign antics surfaced, including an attempt by Walker supporters to disable the Barrett campaign’s phone lines by flooding their call centers with spam phone calls.
RELATED: Madison City Clerk: Turnout Is On Pace To Reach 119%. Turnout in excess of 100% is possible because Wisconsin allows same-day voter registration. The numbers suggest that many people are registering at the polls. Heavy turnout in Madison, a liberal stronghold, would likely benefit Democrat Tom Barrett.
A total of 540,208 valid signatures are required to recall Scott Walker, the Republican governor, who was elected in 2010. The chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin said Monday night that the recall drive would "hit or exceed 720,000 signatures." And there were media reports that the total number of submitted signatures may exceed 1 million.
If that is the scenario, the movement to oust Walker will have secured the support of a higher percentage of eligible voters than has ever before sought to recall an American governor.
Today the petitions get turned in to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Board (the only state agency Scott Walker doesn't control with an appointee). At the end of the day, the number of signatures is irrelevant - rest assure there will be more than enough signatures to survive the relentless teapublican challenges that both Wisconsinites and America expects.
What does this message say to current and future teabagging Govna's you ask? Not on my watch, enough is enough, do we have your attention yet Govna? Walker's reach for power will end sometime this summer. Today I can honestly say that Scott Walker's effort to reshape the balance of power in Wisconsin began and shall ended with his initiative to yank collective-bargaining rights away from public-employee unions.
Wisconsin's recall drive is already the greatest popular democracy movement in it's history, and one of the greatest challenges to political power in American history.
Why should Scotty get the boot?
ATTACK ON WORKING FAMILIES:
Didn’t campaign on the elimination of collective bargaining rights and then terminated collective bargaining for public employees, ending more than fifty years of bipartisan support and dividing the state.
ATTACK ON WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS:
Signed legislation to eliminate programs for cancer screening, STD treatment, birth control and reproductive health support.
ATTACK ON EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS:
Nearly a billion dollars in cuts to education with restrictions on how school districts can make up for the cutbacks and programs.
ATTACK ON INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENTS:
By rejecting $810 million in stimulus funds for the Madison-Milwaukee train, thousands of jobs were lost and taxpayers have to pay for contracts that were cancelled due to careless incompetence.
ATTACK ON THE ENVIRONMENT:
Signed legislation repealing clean water testing, cut alternative energy programs using biomass and wind power that lost thousands of jobs.
ATTACK ON DEMOCRACY AND VOTERS RIGHTS:
Signed legislation for the most restrictive Voter ID law in the US based on unproven Faux News/Republican myth of voter fraud.
Walker has always has a "sense of mission" says his mother, but Walker's sense of mission has often brought controversy in his adult life, as when he ran for student body president as a sophomore at Marquette University in 1988. He was sanctioned for illegal campaigning and declared "unfit" by the student paper for engaging in "blatant mudslinging" against his opponent. Walker lost that election, which he later blamed on his having "focused on personalities and egos." He left Marquette without getting a degree. No surprise here!
All throughout Walker's career his boldness has brought him into turbulent waters, and the great white sharks (Wisconsin and American Democrats) are rabidly seeking a piece of this mans posterior - rightly so, for the vision of a this radical teabagger has gone completely awry, and its time to wrangle in this Reagan wannabe.
The infamous "Koch Whores" Call:
Walker's critics uniformly cite his Feb. 22 2011 phone conversation with a prankster pretending to be billionaire David Koch as the key to understanding what drives him. Below is by far the biggest 'punked" of our time!
In that call, which was secretly recorded and posted on the Internet, Walker crowed about his national media appearances and the positive feedback he said he was getting from other Republican governors, who, like him, "got elected to do something big."
Walker also shared with his caller how, just before he "dropped the bomb" on the state's public employees, he met with his cabinet and pulled out a picture of Ronald Reagan, recalling how the former president had fired air traffic controllers in 1981 — an event he claimed sent a message of toughness that helped spur the collapse of the Soviet Union. Walker recalled telling his cabinet that what he was planning to do in Wisconsin would be comparably historic.
Usually reluctant to concede error, Walker now confesses to being embarrassed by the "Koch Whore" call. No shit Sherlock! Political suicide sounds more apropos.
Like most teapublcians, I say Scotty is drawn to conflict with his "Us vs. Them" dichotomy.
"He has sort of a messiah complex," says state Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona. "The governor feels like he's on some sort of a divine mission." Insert "republican Jesus" here.
NFTOS' biggest criticism of Walker is that he fudges facts — not only in his public pronouncements, but in his own mind.
Walker has said the state is broke, that most of the protesters who besieged the Capitol last spring were from out of state, that most school districts in Wisconsin have seen a net gain in staff. These are among the 27 statements he's made that the collaborative journalism project PolitiFact Wisconsin has deemed "Mostly False," "False" or, worse, "Pants on Fire."
"What he says isn't true," says state Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, who is also weighing a possible challenge against Walker. "I don't think he's intentionally lying. He just believes what is not true." Erpenbach goes on to say: "I've never seen anybody in such denial" as is Walker on the division he's sown. "We're in a spot right now where family members can't talk to each other. Golf buddies can't talk to each other. The governor needs to recognize that we've got to pull things back, and he doesn't."
Well readers, make no mistake about it, denial or not, over 700 thousand signatures will be submitted today for scrutiny. Today organizers will be unloading the stacks of petitions, weighing 3,000 pounds, from a truck and hauling them into the state election board's offices, a state ready to say, "We didn't start it, but we are going to finish it"!
17 days left to collect about 32,000 signatures for the Scott Walker recall – and activists in Wisconsin have already collected 507,000 signatures in less than a month. 28 days, to be exact. That’s over 18,000 signatures a day, roughly 750 signatures an hour, every hour. Hated much, Walker?
Poor Scottie. His classic right-wing overreach, fueled by his love affair with the Koch Bros., has been an epic fail. Even the wife of a Wisconsin Republican Senator – and her maid - signed the recall petition against Walker.
Walker isn’t taking this lying down – no way, no how. He’s tried everything. As reported by tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com, he filed a lawsuit against his own Government Accountability Board claiming that “Walker’s 14th Amendment rights of Equal Protection are violated by putting a burden on his campaign to review and challenge petition signatures within a ten-day period.” Wisconsin Dems have filed a Motion to Intervene to dismiss the Republican desperate efforts, er, lawsuit, and the next hearing date is January 5, 2012. Walker’s spent a cool couple of mil in television ads countering the recall efforts. He’s called out the big guns, even going on Fox News to whine about the “massive fraud” of the recall signature gathering. Well, if Faux News can’t help him, no one can.
As sad as it is Faux News can’t.
Walker’s ads are as disingenuous as the “job creation” agenda he tried to ram down Wisconsin’s throat when he was elected a year ago; the “small business owner” starring in one of his “Walker is Wonderful” ads is actually a multi-millionaire who owns Milwaukee’s pro football team, the Mustangs. Not exactly small business material, there. Well, maybe owning a football team, to Walker cronies and patrons Koch and Koch, is a small business enterprise. The rest of us, small business owners included, would probably struggle to afford a ticket to the game.
For those who spent many cold weeks or weekends up in Wisconsin last winter – the recall election is a breath of spring air in the midst of a cold midwestern winter. Many of us recall thephony phone call, where Walker was punked by a reporter purporting to be David Koch. In it, Walker and “Koch” conspired to find ways to punish the wayward state congressional Dems, joked about the use of a baseball bat in Walker’s office, discussed planting “troublemakers” among the protesters, and “Koch” offered – and Walker accepted – an offer of a congratulatory trip to Cali once Walker “crushed these bastards.”
Given his way, Walker would most certainly “crush these bastards” – the “bastards” in this case being Wisconsin citizens. He’s well on his way . . . .
First and foremost, Walker stripped most Wisconsin public workers of their right to collectively bargain. When protesters against his anti-union legislation overflowed Madison, Wisconsin, he put the State Capitol – the people’s Capitol – on “lockdown.”
Walker’s policies resulted in severely reduced funding for the state’s public schools.
Walker cut $500 million from the state’s Badgercare insurance program, affecting the insurance of tens of thousands of people.
The assclown who worries about the budget deficit added $117 million to it, giving corporations tax breaks.
Walker’s job creation is non-existent – the state actually lost jobs, even while he was thumping his chest at his job-creation virility.
Walker jumped on the “show us your papers” voter ID bandwagon, passing a law that will make it more difficult to vote, particularly for minorities, students and the elderly.
Walker refused federal money for a high-speed rail between Madison and Milwaukee. Might have created a few jobs, there.
Now, Walker is admitting (throwing himself on the mercy of the court of public opinion, perhaps?) that he might have made a few teeny tiny mistakes in the way he “sold his message.” Guess he still doesn’t get it, because the problem wasn’t with the sale of the message – the problem was with the message itself.
This is radical teapublicanism at its best! C-YA, Walker, and don't let the door hit where the good Lord split you.
The word has spread that over 550,000 signatures have been gathered to recall Scott Walker! This means the movement is passing its first milestone. Now they must gather more signatures to pad its victory in case some are thrown out by the Secretary of State.
The announcement is supposed to come today (hour and a half away) at noon. Some on the ground are expecting 1,000,000 signatures before the deadline in several weeks.
After Governor Walker's assault on unions, his attack on democracy, and his blatant disregard for the will of the people, a recall effort was all but assured to remove him and all his supporters from Wisconsin government. Hundreds of thousands have poured into the streets and many have occupied the capitol building. Thousands took part in the summer recall and the government was almost flipped.
NFTOS assault on this idiot has been unrelenting and now it appears that this "Koch Whore" will get his due.
Wisconsin GOP Leaders Trying To Run Fake Democrats On Recall Ballots.
In the wake of Gov. Scott Walker’s (R-WI) attack on public employee collective bargaining rights, a number of Republicans elected to the state legislature are expected to face recall elections, with at least six slated for recalls currently.
Yesterday, the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal-Sentinel uncovered a new dirty trick that some Wisconsin Republican leaders are encouraging among their members. In a letter obtained by the paper, Dan Feyen, the chairman of the 6th Congressional District Republican Party, instructs his “fellow conservatives” to run spoiler candidates in the primaries for Democratic candidates. Referencing the recall election of Sen. Randy Hopper (R), Feyen argues that a primary would allow an extra month until the general election, which would give Republicans time to organize.
In a separate letter, Feyen also advocates for running a spoiler candidate in the Democratic primary that will decide a nominee to run against Sen. Luther Olsen (R). Here’s a screenshot of one of the letters, where Feyen is encouraging conservatives to support John Buckstaff for a “protest candidacy”:
The Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal-Sentinel notes that Buckstaff has a “has a long history of giving modest amounts to Republican candidates, including Walker and Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen. He even gave $575 to Hopper’s campaign in 2008.” In a conversation with the paper, Feyen said that his efforts are actually being coordinated by the “RPW” — the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
The revelations about Feyen’s letters come on top of a leaked recording of GOP officials in La Crosse discussing how to get a “spoiler candidate in the recall election tentatively scheduled for Republican Sen. Dan Kapanke.”
Despite massive protests, procedural obstacles, and restraining orders, the Wisconsin GOP hustled Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) anti-union bill into law in March. Now, they’re paying a steep political price. Democratic and labor activistslaunched an effort to recall six Republicans who supported crippling the right of public employees to collectively bargain.
They needed roughly 15,000 signatures to secure recall elections for each senator. In each case, “more than 21,000 signatures were gathered.” Today, the non-partisan state election officials announced the success of their efforts by ordering a recall election for state GOP Sens. Dan Kapanke, Randy Hopper, and Luther Olsen on July 12:
The Wisconsin board that oversees elections rejected most challenges Monday to a recall effort targeting three Republican state senators, clearing the way for a July 12 election.
The Government Accountability Board [GAB] rejected the challenges made to recall petitions targeting Republican Sens. Dan Kapanke of La Crosse, Randy Hopper of Fond du Lac and Luther Olsen of Ripon.
Republicans argued that the campaigns improperly filed initial paperwork to launch the petition drive and that some signatures should not be counted, but the GAB rejected the arguments and, in the case of Kapanke, unanimously decided to order a recall election. The other GOP lawmakers facing recall elections are state Sens. Robert Cowles, Sheila Harsdorf, and Alberta Darling. The board will judge those petitions on May 31, “andlikely would certify all the petitions that same week.”
NFTOS
