Wisconsin Gov. Walker part of criminal scheme: NOT

[Geee]

:

Prosecutors allege that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was involved in a “criminal scheme” in which he illegally coordinated fundraising among outside conservative groups for a gubernatorial bid, according to court documents unsealed Thursday.

 

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Associated Press reported that prosecutors say that Mr. Walker and two members of his inner circle illegally coordinated fundraising with national groups and high-profile figures such as Karl Rove.

 

Mr. Walker is thought to be considering a presidential bid in 2016 and has denied any wrongdoing.

[Valin]

@Geee

Media Malpractice – Report false criminal accusations against Walker, but not contrary judicial rulings
William A. Jacobson
Thursday, June 19, 2014

Multiple judges have found there was no crime even if what prosecutors claim was true.

The big breaking news in the “John Doe” anti-Conservative Wisconsin investigation is that the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals released previously sealed court exhibits detailing accusations made at the time the Wisconsin prosecutors commenced the proceeding.

So you get screaming headlines such as these:

(Snip)

[Geee]

Humiliated in court, WI Dems take their anti-conservative John Doe probe to the media

 

MADISON, Wis. — Smacked by two judges in their legal effort to take down Gov. Scott Walker, prosecutors in Wisconsin’s secret John Doe investigation have taken their case to the friendlier court of mainstream media.

 

Citing 268 pages of documents released Thursday, the Associated Press and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel laid out the prosecution’s argument that conservative organizations and others illegally coordinated political activities with Gov. Scott Walker.

 

Looking at the same documents, two judges have already ruled that John Doe prosecutors have absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing.

 

U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Randa, who last month shut down the investigation through a preliminary injunction, described the prosecutors’ claims against Walker as “simply wrong.”

 

http://watchdog.org/155542/john-doe-court-dems/

[Geee]

What about those prosecutors? Questions surround other John Doe DAs

 

MADISON, Wis. — As the old saying goes, it takes two to tango.

 

In the case of a politically charged John Doe probe into dozens of conservative targets, we often forget it took six top prosecutors to expand this secret investigative dance.

 

Well known by now are:

 

* Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, the Democrat who launched the so-called John Doe II — really, it appears, just a continuation of a lengthy John Doe investigation into former aides and associates of Republican Gov. Scott Walker when Walker was Milwaukee County executive — in late summer 2012. Chisholm’s two henchmen, assistant DAs Bruce Landgraf and David Robles, were also heavily involved.

 

* Francis Schmitz, the former assistant U.S. attorney brought in to serve as the John Doe’s special prosecutor.

 

http://watchdog.org/155454/john-doe-prosecutors-questions/

[Geee]

Wisconsin's Secret War

 

http://watchdog.org/

 

_____________________________________________________

 

The Dems and the unions have pulled out all the stops, sending millions

to prevent his re-election, trying to nip his career in the bud.

[Valin]

If You're Taking Flak You Must Be Over the Target!

 

As Rush has said The Left lets us know who they are most afraid of.

[Valin]

[Valin]

Governor Scott Walker On The Journalistic Malpractice Surrounding Fridays Stories About The Wisconsin Case

Hugh Hewitt

Friday, June 20, 2014

 

Governor Scott Walker (website here) joined me to begin Fridays program, and he blasted the coverage of the decisions in Wisconsin dismissing the egregious prosecutorial misconduct which has thus far cost the taxpayers of Wisconsin $350,000 in legal defense costs (and who knows how much wasted time) for abusing the prosecutorial process there. (Earlier today, the Journal Sentinel has the story on the costs triggered by the sham probes as a stand alone-story it is now buried deep in a different storymustnt let readers focus on the real cost to the state of these Democratic sehananigans).

 

Audio

 

 

(Snip)

 

Transcript at link

[Geee]

Wall Street Journal points out ‘disgrace’ of mainstream John Doe reporting

 

It’s been pretty clear where legacy news outlets statewide and nationwide stand on the Republican governor who toppled public-sector collective bargaining in the Badger State — a very dangerous man for organized labor and the armies of the left.

 

But last week’s headlines from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to the Washington Post screamed of Walker’s “criminal scheme,” taking up the John Doe prosecutors’ descriptor as the gospel truth.

 

.

.

ABOUT WALKER: Conservatives have long claimed the real role of the long-running John Doe investigations is to take down Gov. Scott Walker. Now many conservatives see the mainstream media complicit in the judicially debunked investigation.

Buried far beneath in the mainstream’s coverage are the key facts in the John Doe story: two judges, including the presiding judge of the long and secretive investigation, have declared the prosecutors’ theory that dozens of conservative organizations illegally coordinated with Walker’s campaign is wrong.

http://watchdog.org/155887/mainstream-john-doe-wall-street-journal/

[Geee]

Scott Walker’s Wisconsin

 

Madison, Wis. – The town of Madison, where I went to college, is one of the loveliest places in America. Nestled close together on tree-lined streets, among old wooden houses bedecked with front porches, are the state’s government and flagship university, all on an isthmus barely a mile wide that snakes its way between four beautiful lakes. It has some of the friendliest, most close-knit, park-filled neighborhoods you will ever visit.

 

It is also one of the most left-wing places you will ever visit. And this year it is the center of one of the most important election battles in the country, in which Wisconsin governor Scott Walker faces Mary Burke, a former executive of Trek Bicycle. In the balance are his hopes for the 2016 presidential contest. But the election is even more important for another reason: It is a test of whether conservative reforms can yield results widely enough and quickly enough to win lasting political support, even in the teeth of a concerted progressive counterattack.

 

 

Despite his placid warm smile and unfailing neighborliness, the typical Madisonian proves capable of remarkable anger when a conservative crosses his path. In Madison, conservatives have a comically nefarious image, close to that of SPECTRE in the James Bond movies. Even their leaders are shadowy super-villains — the Koch brothers — who are to progressives what the German banker-philanthropist Jacob Goldschmidt was to the early Nazis.

 

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/381515/scott-walkers-wisconsin-mario-loyola

[Valin]

Scott Walker’s Wisconsin

 

 

 

Do The "Progressives" understand the more the rant and rail at Scott Walker the bigger they make him? If He becomes President (and IMO we could do worse) Scott should invite Michael Moore/the editors of MMA to the inauguration.

[righteousmomma]

They are truly despicable. Bringing up an old charge found to be without merit and the Dems didnt have a leg to stand on and tweaking the headlines etc as though current blah blah.

AS RUSH has said several times over the months and weeks the great ignored success story of Scott Walker in Wisconsin by the GOP Establishment is baffling. Well, NOT but.....

 

I just posted sort of about this in the Coffee Shop

[Geee]

They are truly despicable. Bringing up an old charge found to be without merit and the Dems didnt have a leg to stand on and tweaking the headlines etc as though current blah blah.

AS RUSH has said several times over the months and weeks the great ignored success story of Scott Walker in Wisconsin by the GOP Establishment is baffling. Well, NOT but.....

 

I just posted sort of about this in the Coffee Shop

 

His opponent has been running ads daily referring to all of these bogus charges Just like they were fact!!! Walkers people have asked her to stop, but she will not. LIV will surely think there is something to it, which is what she is counting on.

[Geee]

Labor activist admits minimum-wage referendums are aimed at derailing Walker re-election

 

MADISON, Wis. — It’s not about giving Democratic candidates an advantage at the polls. It’s all about giving constituents a voice on one of the most talked-about issues in the country.

 

IT’S NOW CLEAR: Wisconsin Jobs Now Executive Director Jennifer Epps Addison admits the goal of the nonbinding minimum wage referendums in November is to bring more liberal voters to the polls.

That’s the response of some Wisconsin public officials to the growing number of nonbinding minimum wage referendums popping up in counties and cities all over the state.

 

But Jennifer Epps-Addison, executive director of Wisconsin Jobs Now, a front group for the Service Employees International Union, told the Huffington Post in a story published Wednesday that her organization and other activists are hoping to use the referendums to entice more liberal voters to the polls in November.

 

And their ultimate goal? To help their Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke defeat Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who has repeatedly said he doesn’t support raising the hourly minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 because of the potential of killing jobs.

http://watchdog.org/157974/minimum-wage-liberal-referendum/

[Valin]

Labor activist admits minimum-wage referendums are aimed at derailing Walker re-election

 

jobs.

http://watchdog.org/157974/minimum-wage-liberal-referendum/

I am of the opinion the minimum wage campaign run at whatever level is designed to attack The Right, not help the poor. Its a club to beat us over the head with.

[Geee]

Is John Doe probe a case of a mini NSA in Wisconsin?

 

MADISON, Wis. — Conservatives long have likened Wisconsin’s Democrat-launched John Doe investigation to the IRS scandal.

 

Much like the Internal Revenue Service’s intense scrutiny of mostly conservative groups, the politically charged John Doe probe apparently has targeted only conservatives — on a legal theory that has been roundly dismissed by two judges.

 

But documents obtained by Wisconsin Reporter suggest Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, the Democrat who launched the ever-widening campaign finance probe in late summer 2012, and his fellow prosecutors were involved in a court-sanctioned sweep of Internet service providers and email operators that conservatives and others describe as a miniature domestic spying operation, akin to the National Security Agency, and run from Milwaukee using taxpayer dollars.

 

.

CONNECTED: Documents suggest John Doe prosecutors were engaged in a wide sweep of the ISPs of conservative targets. Is it a case of the little NSA in the Badger State?

Recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions on police seizures of electronic devices, meanwhile, could put the John Doe prosecutors’ apparent national subpoena blitzkrieg of mega Internet portals in legal jeopardy.

http://watchdog.org/158773/john-doe-nsa-fourth-amendment/

[Geee]

Will John Doe prosecutors launch lengthy probe against Trek Bicycle?

MADISON, Wis. — The Republican Party of Wisconsin on Tuesday filed a formal complaint with the state’s election and campaign watchdog, accusing Trek Bicycle Corp., owned by the family of Democrat gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke, of using corporate dollars to aid and defend Burke’s campaign.

On Sunday, Trek ran a full-page advertisement in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to “attack Governor (Scott) Walker and reinforce Mary Burke’s longstanding talking points,” the GOP charges. Similar ads reportedly ran in other newspapers in Wisconsin.

The Republican Party estimates the Milwaukee Journal ad to have cost the company more than $22,000.

.

.

CAMPAIGN QUESTION: The Republican Party of Wisconsin has filed a complaint with the state Government Accountability Board alleging that Trek Bicycle Corp. violated campaign law by paying for a letter, published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, responding to campaign ads attacking Trek family member and Democrat candidate for governor, Mary Burke. The complaint begs the question, will a lengthy John Doe investigation ensue?

The problem, according to the complaint, is that under Wisconsin campaign finance laws, corporations cannot make contributions to candidate committees.

 

“Pursuant to Wis. Stat. 11.38(1)(a), no corporation may make a direct or indirect disbursement to a candidate,” the complaint notes.

http://watchdog.org/160804/trek-bicyle-john-doe-mary-burke/

[SrWoodchuck]

Will John Doe prosecutors launch lengthy probe against Trek Bicycle?

MADISON, Wis. — The Republican Party of Wisconsin on Tuesday filed a formal complaint with the state’s election and campaign watchdog, accusing Trek Bicycle Corp., owned by the family of Democrat gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke, of using corporate dollars to aid and defend Burke’s campaign.

On Sunday, Trek ran a full-page advertisement in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to “attack Governor (Scott) Walker and reinforce Mary Burke’s longstanding talking points,” the GOP charges. Similar ads reportedly ran in other newspapers in Wisconsin.

The Republican Party estimates the Milwaukee Journal ad to have cost the company more than $22,000.

.

.

CAMPAIGN QUESTION: The Republican Party of Wisconsin has filed a complaint with the state Government Accountability Board alleging that Trek Bicycle Corp. violated campaign law by paying for a letter, published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, responding to campaign ads attacking Trek family member and Democrat candidate for governor, Mary Burke. The complaint begs the question, will a lengthy John Doe investigation ensue?

The problem, according to the complaint, is that under Wisconsin campaign finance laws, corporations cannot make contributions to candidate committees.

 

“Pursuant to Wis. Stat. 11.38(1)(a), no corporation may make a direct or indirect disbursement to a candidate,” the complaint notes.

http://watchdog.org/160804/trek-bicyle-john-doe-mary-burke/

 

Sweet @Geee!

 

Me likey! Hoist them on their own petards. From Billy Shakespeare.....

 

Act III, Scene IV of Hamlet

 

There’s letters seal’d: and my two schoolfellows,

Whom I will trust as I will adders fang’d,

They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,

And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;

For ’tis the sport to have the engineer

Hoist with his own petard: and’t shall go hard

But I will delve one yard below their mines,

And blow them at the moon

 

[Geee]

Is ‘Millionaire Mary’ Burke just another ‘cheap millionaire’?

 

MADISON, Wis. — Before Mary Burke officially jumped into Wisconsin’s highly watched race for governor last October, the Democratic Party establishment drooled over the prospect of “Millionaire Mary” taking on Republican incumbent Scott Walker.

 

No. 1: Burke wasn’t Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Not many establishment types, it seems, were interested in another run by Also-Ran Barrett, soundly beaten twice by Walker in less than two years — in the 2010 run for governor and the Big Labor-led recall election in the spring of 2012.

 

No. 2: Money, money, money, money … money! The former executive with Trek Bicycle Corp., the Wisconsin company her dad built from the garage up, had a net income north of $6.8 million from 2008 to 2012, according to an analysis by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

http://watchdog.org/161896/mary-burke-scott-walker-millionaire/

[Geee]

Mary Burke hauls in big bucks from celebrity friends

 

MADISON, Wis. — When it comes to campaign handouts, Mary Burke has some interesting friends.

 

The latest campaign finance report from Burke, the Democrats’ presumptive candidate for governor in November’s election, shows the Madison school board member took in approximately $3.6 million in the first half of 2014, pocketing campaign checks from a diverse group of liberals.

 

Over the period, Burke’s big-donor list includes the former governor of Wisconsin, a wealthy Hollywood producer and Jay Leno’s wife. Also among the big Burke spenders are two of President Obama’s biggest national fundraisers, and one of the owners of the Chicago Cubs.

 

Burke’s contributors come from California to New York, puncturing the candidate’s recent lamentations on outside money controlling Wisconsin elections.

 

MARY'S FRIENDS: Democrat candidate for governor Mary Burke has collected a diverse lineup of campaign contributors, from a co-owner of the Cubs to the wife of former "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno.

MARY’S FRIENDS: Democrat candidate for governor Mary Burke has collected a diverse lineup of campaign contributors, from a co-owner of the Cubs to the wife of former “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno.

In these campaign finance dog days of summer, things are just beginning to heat up.

http://watchdog.org/162098/mary-burke-celebrity-campaign/

[Geee]

She must have a lot of money to spend, cause she is already running daily smear ads.

[Geee]

Oral arguments set in John Doe prosecutors’ appeal

 

MADISON, Wis. – The 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has set oral arguments in a case to determine whether a lower court’s ruling shutting down a politically charged John Doe investigation into conservative groups will stand.

 

The court on Wednesday issued a notice, scheduling oral arguments for 2:30 p.m., Sept. 9, in the main courtroom of the 7th Circuit’s Chicago complex, at 219 South Dearborn St.

 

A source with knowledge of the case tells Wisconsin Reporter the accelerated schedule bodes well for conservative activist Eric O’Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth, plaintiffs in a civil rights lawsuit against the prosecutors of the nearly two-year-old John Doe probe. The source, who asked not to be identified due to proximity to the case, said the previous schedule of court filings had put oral arguments on track for October or November.

 

ARGUMENTS SCHEDULED: The 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has set oral arguments in a case involving Wisconsin’s politically charged John Doe investigation for Sept. 9.

It appears the John Doe matter will be among the first cases the three-member 7th Circuit takes up when it returns from summer recess.

http://watchdog.org/162400/john-doe-court-prosecutors/

[Geee]

John Doe document blitz must have broken mainstream media’s heart

 

MADISON, Wis. — You could almost feel the heartbreak from the mainstream media following the latest John Doe document dump Friday.

 

After Milwaukee County released the “initial 14 GB (gigabytes)” of materials and documents related to the lengthy and secret investigation into former aides and associates of Gov. Scott Walker when Walker served as Milwaukee County executive, news organizations across the state began salivating at the prospects.

 

.

.

HEARTBREAKER: No startling revelations, no embarrassing moments. Mainstream media covering last week’s big John Doe document dump must have been discouraged by the lack of raw meat on Gov. Scott Walker in the 14 gigabytes of records released to the public.

But there didn’t seem to be any “gotcha” moments, no sensational or embarrassing correspondences from Walker or his staff, and certainly no smoking gun that might have validated a nearly three-year investigation that ostensibly began with allegations of theft and ended with six mostly disconnected convictions.

So what did we learn from the latest document dump?

That Walker’s top aide — like so many others have — questioned the motives of the prosecutor hounds hunting for red meat, and that Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker was a hard worker constantly thinking about policy.

 

http://watchdog.org/164432/john-doe-media-scott-walker/

[Geee]

Senator: Looks like accountability board is hiding something

 

MADISON, Wis. — The state’s elections and campaign finance watchdog is digging in its heels, rejecting multiple requests by lawmakers and journalists to take a peek at the agency’s secret financial records.

 

Arguably taking a less-than-accountable posture, the Government Accountability Board this week denied Wisconsin Reporter’s open records request for information on the agency’s contracts with its two special investigators, Dean Nickel and Francis Schmitz. The accountability board, again, leans on claims of confidentiality, a convenient shield that makes the GAB look like it has something to hide, according to one state senator.

 

Nickel and Schmitz have been intricately involved in the politically charged John Doe investigation into dozens of conservative organizations. So has the GAB, it seems, according to court documents.

 

http://watchdog.org/164959/john-doe-gab-hiding/

[Geee]

Kelly Rindfleisch appeal to test validity of John Doe digital searches

 

MADISON, Wis. — Kelly Rindfleisch knows how slowly the wheels of justice can turn.

 

Nearly two years after the former Milwaukee County Executive aide first appealed her felony conviction of misconduct in office, Rindfleisch will have her day in a Milwaukee County appeals court — in a key Fourth Amendment case that could test the boundaries between acceptable law enforcement and abuse of power.

 

Oral arguments are slated for 10 a.m., Sept. 18 at the 1st District Court of Appeals.

 

The court will grant one hour — a half hour for each side — to argue a politicized case that has drawn a white-hot national spotlight.

 

FOURTH AMENDMENT TEST: After nearly two years of waiting, Kelly Rindfleisch will finally have her day in court next month. The former aide to Gov. Scott Walker when Walker was Milwaukee County executive is appealing her 2012 conviction of a felony count of misconduct in office, asserting that politically motivated prosecutors violated her Fourth Amendment rights in a broad sweep of her emails.

Much has happened during the past few years, not the least of which have been some key rulings in federal appeals courts on digital data seizures, like those involved in Rindfleisch’s case. Those rulings could bode well for Rindfleisch, who claims Milwaukee County prosecutors engaged in a secret and lengthy John Doe investigation that “eviscerated her privacy rights” under the United States and Wisconsin constitutions.

http://watchdog.org/165281/kelly-rindfleisch-john-doe-appeal/