View Full Version : Scott Walker Is Dismantling an Oversight Committee That Investigated Him
Cigar
12-18-2015, 10:11 AM
Let's skip up north to one of America's newly founded banana republics. Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their Midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin, has managed to guarantee that elections in that state will be a complete sham for the foreseeable future.
The campaign finance measure dials back restrictions on money flowing into state political campaigns, some of which had been struck down by court rulings. The signing of the measure dismantling the Government Accountability Board kicks off a six-month transition to new elections and ethics commissions that will succeed it on June 30. The GAB, made up of six nonpartisan former judges, oversees elections, campaign finance, ethics and lobbying. The bill replaces it with two separate elections and ethics commissions overseen by appointees, most of them partisans, made by legislative leaders and the governor.
And why is this happening? Were the members of the GAB hiring strippers and buying meth on the state's dime? Were some of them revealed to be carnivorous reptiles from the planet Shrelb? Are they the Gamesters of Triskelion? No, it's because they did their job and raised some questions about the source of Walker's re-election quatloos.
But in recent years, the GAB and Kennedy fell out of favor with many Wisconsin Republicans for their role in the investigation into secret coordination between Walker's 2012 recall campaign and several so-called "issue advocacy" organizations. The board's growing list of critics described the GAB as a rogue agency and accused it of partisan bias after it assisted prosecutors in the John Doe investigation. The state Supreme Court halted the probe in July, saying it had no basis in law.
Punchline?
Republican supporters of the bill to dismantle the GAB say it will restore confidence in the oversight of elections and elected officials.
Yes, voters in Wisconsin can now be completely confident that all of their future elections will be rigged.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a40592/scott-walker-wisconsin-government-accountability-board/
Nothing to see here folks, just Republicans being Republicans :laugh:
Subdermal
12-18-2015, 10:35 AM
Nice hit piece.
Of course the truth is that the Government Accountability Board here is as corrupt and partisan as hell. It was the driving force behind the unConstitutional raid of an innocent person's house, and behind this illegitimate investigation of Scott Walker, which the GAB ITSELF ADMITTED (http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/11/outrageous_john_doe_prosecution_of_scott_walker_su pporters_in_wisconsin_ends.html).
Honesty. Try it sometime.
Cigar
12-18-2015, 10:36 AM
Nice hit piece.
Of course the truth is that the Government Accountability Board here is as corrupt and partisan as hell. It was the driving force behind the unConstitutional raid of an innocent person's house, and behind this illegitimate investigation of Scott Walker, which the GAB ITSELF ADMITTED (http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/11/outrageous_john_doe_prosecution_of_scott_walker_su pporters_in_wisconsin_ends.html).
Honesty. Try it sometime.
Great, you obviously didn't read it or even know how it was chosen.:laugh:
Subdermal
12-18-2015, 10:39 AM
Great, you obviously didn't read it or even know how it was chosen.:laugh:
Perhaps you need educate yourself regarding the illicit actions of the GAB instead of spouting off crap about which you know nothing. Since I live here, I hear everything about this POS agency, and the shenanigans which it has pulled on behalf of Dem pols. There is nothing 'accountable' about the GAB.
They were responsible for UNCONSTITUTIONAL and ILLEGAL behavior. Grow up.
Cigar
12-18-2015, 11:03 AM
Perhaps you need educate yourself regarding the illicit actions of the GAB instead of spouting off crap about which you know nothing. Since I live here, I hear everything about this POS agency, and the shenanigans which it has pulled on behalf of Dem pols. There is nothing 'accountable' about the GAB.
They were responsible for UNCONSTITUTIONAL and ILLEGAL behavior. Grow up.
How about you try Educating yourself first ...
Members of the Government Accountability BoardThe Government Accountability Board is comprised of six former judges who serve staggered, six-year terms. Board members are appointed by the Governor, and serve part time, receiving per diems of $445.15 per meeting.
http://www.gab.wi.gov/about/members
Government Accountability Board Guidelineshttp://www.gab.wi.gov/guidelines
Please take small bites, then chew ... I wouldn't want you to choke
texan
12-18-2015, 12:15 PM
Great, you obviously didn't read it or even know how it was chosen.:laugh:
You want to be taken seriously when you start your paper with "Let's skip up north to one of America's newly founded banana republics"?
Sounds like good journalism........
Subdermal
12-18-2015, 12:35 PM
How about you try Educating yourself first ...
Members of the Government Accountability Board
The Government Accountability Board is comprised of six former judges who serve staggered, six-year terms. Board members are appointed by the Governor, and serve part time, receiving per diems of $445.15 per meeting.
http://www.gab.wi.gov/about/members
Government Accountability Board Guidelines
http://www.gab.wi.gov/guidelines
Please take small bites, then chew ... I wouldn't want you to choke
WTF do I have to educate myself about, and how exactly is your response here contradicting anything I wrote?
What does it matter what the GAB was comprised of? What matters is what the slimes on it actually did - and what they did was illegal.
You posted a puff-piece which utterly ignores the illegality of the member's actions of the GAB, and tried to turn it into some whackjob hit piece on Scott Walker, when in point of fact the focus should be on the dissolution of this illicit board and the illegal and unConstitutional actions taken by it in an effort to smear Democrat opposition.
How about you educate yourself about why this POS agency is going away?
Subdermal
12-18-2015, 12:39 PM
The GAB was on a witch hunt of Conservatives (http://watchdog.org/245579/gab-political-evidence/).
GAB kept pushing political probe despite daunting evidence problems
MADISON, Wis. — In its overzealous pursuit of conservatives on a widely discredited theory of campaign finance coordination, the state Government Accountability Board (http://ballotpedia.org/Wisconsin_Government_Accountability_Board)did not know when to say when.
Court documents reviewed by Wisconsin Watchdog reveal a political speech regulator — from staff to the retired judges who preside over it — pushing on with their political probe into conservative groups and the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker (http://ballotpedia.org/Scott_Walker) despite facing a mountain of “evidentiary concerns.”
In May 2014, the so-called “parallel investigation” by the so-called “nonpartisan” GAB already was up against some cold hard facts.
John Doe Judge Gregory Peterson had told investigators they had no probable cause (http://watchdog.org/123377/john-doe-conservatives-wall-street-journal/)for their politically driven investigation. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit had declared unconstitutional (http://watchdog.org/144808/campaign-finance-wisconsin-court/) and “labyrinthian” the portions of Wisconsin campaign finance law the John Doe team pegged their investigation on.
http://watchdog.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/11/GAB-office-300x168.jpg (http://watchdog.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/11/GAB-office.jpg)
UNRELENTING: Despite admitted evidentiary and legal problems, the state Government Accountability Board continued to pursue its political probe against conservatives, documents obtained by Wisconsin Watchdog show.
But the bigger problem was expressed in a memo from GAB director and general counsel Kevin Kennedy (http://ballotpedia.org/Kevin_Kennedy_(Wisconsin)) to his board, his bosses.
“Access to the evidence is and will continue to be a huge hurdle — the main obstacle, and necessary predicate, to bringing any civil action is to obtain permission from (John Doe I) Judge (Neal) Nettesheim or Judge Peterson to use evidence obtained through both John Doe I and II for this purpose,” states the partially redacted document prepared for the May 21-22, 2014, GAB meeting.
The GAB regulates Wisconsin’s campaign finance, elections, ethics and lobbying laws, although a bill pending in the Legislature could overhaul the agency.
The 15-page memo lays out the reasons why the staff believes the board should “proceed without delay to take necessary actions in order to file civil complaints” against targets of the probe.
By this time it was growing increasingly clear that the rogue agency’s partners in the abusive investigation, the Democrat-led Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office and the GAB’s dual-agent, Special Prosecutor Francis Schmitz, were not going to be able to bring any criminal charges.
But Kennedy and his staff were so determined to nail the conservatives they shrugged off their failure in being able to access the reams of documents the prosecutors had seized and the fact that much of that information was protected under attorney/client privilege.
No worries. Onward, cried Kennedy and crew, even after acknowledging in the same memo their already expensive investigation would get a lot more costly.
“This will be an expensive undertaking. While the board has a sum sufficient to pay for this type of action, outside factors should also be considered, i.e. political pressures, best use of state funds, timing, etc.,” the memo states.
The GAB fully understood the chain of custody concerns early on.
In an Aug. 29, 2013, email, (http://watchdog.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/10/Exhibit-A_151022_MWO.pdf) Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf notes the internal question of “whether or not a prosecutor has the right to unfettered use of secret John Doe evidence outside a criminal proceeding.” The GAB, under law, may only pursue civil, not criminal prosecutions. The latter are the domain of district attorneys.
“I consider that the only absolute license that prosecutors have to use secret John Doe evidence is in a criminal proceeding,” Landgraf added.
Then-GAB staff counsel Shane Falk responded to Landgraf’s email (http://watchdog.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/10/Exhibit-A_151022_MWO.pdf) that such evidentiary questions were concerns “the GAB has had from the beginning … if we know the Judge is unlikely to allow the use of records, or it will take too much time to release them publicly, or that any immunity may negate potential individual civil claims.”
Several emails made public (http://watchdog.org/235827/john-doe-gab-shane-falk/) in recent months have raised questions about Falk’s partisan motives at the “nonpartisan” GAB.
John Doe prosecutor Schmitz, a dual GAB agent, in the email chain, (http://watchdog.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/10/Exhibit-A_151022_MWO.pdf) asks his partners a question that underscores the GAB’s myopic pursuit of the conservative groups and Walker’s campaign.
“Can we solve the records problem by just issuing new subpoenas from the GAB based on the information gleaned from the JD investigation? Just thinking,” Schmitz wrote in an email response to the issues raised.
MORE AT LINK
Subdermal
12-18-2015, 12:40 PM
Cigar: Kevin Kennedy has lost his job and his reputation for his actions - and yet is suing no one. Why?
Because he is guilty of the charges that led to his dismissal. I submit you don't know a focking thing about what went on, and were simply anxious to post a piece from a leftist rag to further an insipid leftist agenda to lie about the truth and to smear Conservatives yourself.
You lose.
Subdermal
12-18-2015, 12:43 PM
Let's continue, and further pound Cigar's nonsense to dust:
The GAB and John Doe prosecutors were a little more than a month away from leading predawn paramilitary-style raids (http://watchdog.org/230683/john-doe-deborah-jordahl-raids/) on the homes and offices of multiple conservative targets, illegally grabbing information that, for the most part, they had obtained through an extensive spying operation.
A month after the raids, Schmitz would begin “really questioning the validity” of the investigation (http://watchdog.org/230683/john-doe-deborah-jordahl-raids/), according to communication from Falk.
In the August 2013 email, Schmitz also raises a note of caution.
“Also, I would not be surprised in the least bit if a judge would not allow use of JD testimony. And in fact, my gut tells me maybe we would not even want to try to do so, unless it was for the limited purpose of impeachment,” Schmitz added.
The John Doe judges, Nettesheim in the “John Doe I” investigation into Walker’s former aides and associates, and Peterson, in the wider “John Doe II,” did not allow the GAB to use “evidence” seized and testimony taken in those criminal probes.
Kennedy’s memo in May 2014 noted two judges’ decisions were “casting doubt on the viability” of the GAB’s legal theories that dozens of conservative groups illegally coordinated with Walker’s campaign and Senate campaigns during Wisconsin’s partisan recall season.
The state Supreme Court would ultimately declare the John Doe investigation unconstitutional (http://watchdog.org/229533/supreme-court-john-doe/)and order it shut down, although Schmitz has asked the court to reconsider its ruling. Three months later, the court has yet to rule on Schmitz’s motion.
Kennedy’s memo strikes a hopeful note that maybe the GAB could get around the chain of custody problem by obtaining the sealed John Doe-related information through court-ordered public document dumps.
Those hopes were quickly dashed.
“However, staff cautions that this evidence may only be admissible, if we are first able to document the proper foundation (i.e. need to obtain chain of custody support from the Milwaukee District Attorney’s Office.),” according to the memo.
“Even if we could obtain the same evidence before filing any civil complaints through the use of the Board’s own investigatory tools, the problem is that all information about this case came from the John Doe proceedings. Without that information, the Board likely would not have had a basis to proceed.”
But proceed they did, at least until June 2014, when, only for lack of a requisite fourth vote to continue the investigation, the GAB judges ordered the probe to end two months later.
Kennedy and the GAB have long insisted the John Doe secrecy orders and the GAB’s own confidentiality clause prevent the agency from making public any information from the investigations. But Kennedy’s memo asserts “an argument could be made that the current secrecy orders issues in the John Doe do not preclude” the GAB from “using the evidence collected to bring civil claims.”
Interestingly, the agency that, conservatives allege, has treated liberals differently than conservatives, noted such an interpretation “is probably too liberal of a reading of the secrecy orders for the Board to proceed without permission, but for purposes of this memorandum staff believes it is at least worth noting.”
So what was the GAB doing discussing civil violations based on evidence it could not use?
For one thing, GAB staff saw the possibility of hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, in civil forfeitures if they could make their allegations stick.
“In addition to the $500 penalty, a committee that fails to file a report may be required to forfeit not more than $50 or 1% of the annual salary of the office for which the candidate is supported or opposed, whichever is greater, for each day of the delinquency.”
The memo notes Walker’s salary from January 2011 through December 2013 was $144,423. GAB staff did the math. “One percent per day is $1,444.23.”
But more than anything, conservative targets say, the GAB was fixed on an idea about Wisconsin campaign finance law that has not survived constitutional challenge.
Falk himself may have telegraphed where this agency was heading six months before he joined it in 2008 when he urged the GAB to “get around the constitutional right of free speech.” (http://watchdog.org/237274/gab-shane-falk-free-speech/)
“When it comes to the point of it affecting an election, the compelling interest rises to the level where the state can get around the constitutional right to free speech,” Falk testified, begging the board to come up with rules blocking issue ads within a couple months of an election.
On an audio recording (http://watchdog.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/09/090915ShaneFalkTestimony.mp3)of the testimony, a GAB member appears to tell Falk that “getting around the constitution” is not the kind of phrasing the “nonpartisan” agency embraces but that he understands Falk’s point. The sound of laughter drowns out the member’s complete comment.
Subdermal
12-18-2015, 12:45 PM
More, for those interested in learning the truth of this Gestapo-like agency in Wisconsin laughingly called "The Government Accountability Board":
http://watchdog.org/243847/john-doe-gab-documents/
Cigar
12-18-2015, 01:32 PM
@Cigar (http://thepoliticalforums.com/member.php?u=294): Kevin Kennedy has lost his job and his reputation for his actions - and yet is suing no one. Why?
Because he is guilty of the charges that led to his dismissal. I submit you don't know a focking thing about what went on, and were simply anxious to post a piece from a leftist rag to further an insipid leftist agenda to lie about the truth and to smear Conservatives yourself.
You lose.
There's noting Win or Lose, you're on the internet ...
BTW, do you live in Wisconsin?
Subdermal
12-18-2015, 01:35 PM
Perhaps you need educate yourself regarding the illicit actions of the GAB instead of spouting off crap about which you know nothing. Since I live here, I hear everything about this POS agency, and the shenanigans which it has pulled on behalf of Dem pols. There is nothing 'accountable' about the GAB.
They were responsible for UNCONSTITUTIONAL and ILLEGAL behavior. Grow up.
There's noting Win or Lose, you're on the internet ...
BTW, do you live in Wisconsin?
All you're doing is confirming poster's belief that you really don't pay attention.
Cigar
12-18-2015, 02:14 PM
Is that a Yes or No? :huh:
Subdermal
12-18-2015, 02:28 PM
Lol
Tahuyaman
12-18-2015, 06:23 PM
Every time the Democrats went after Walker, he not only survived, he got even stronger. That pisses off the liberals.
Professor Peabody
12-20-2015, 03:27 PM
Let's skip up north to one of America's newly founded banana republics. Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their Midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin, has managed to guarantee that elections in that state will be a complete sham for the foreseeable future.
The campaign finance measure dials back restrictions on money flowing into state political campaigns, some of which had been struck down by court rulings. The signing of the measure dismantling the Government Accountability Board kicks off a six-month transition to new elections and ethics commissions that will succeed it on June 30. The GAB, made up of six nonpartisan former judges, oversees elections, campaign finance, ethics and lobbying. The bill replaces it with two separate elections and ethics commissions overseen by appointees, most of them partisans, made by legislative leaders and the governor.
And why is this happening? Were the members of the GAB hiring strippers and buying meth on the state's dime? Were some of them revealed to be carnivorous reptiles from the planet Shrelb? Are they the Gamesters of Triskelion? No, it's because they did their job and raised some questions about the source of Walker's re-election quatloos.
But in recent years, the GAB and Kennedy fell out of favor with many Wisconsin Republicans for their role in the investigation into secret coordination between Walker's 2012 recall campaign and several so-called "issue advocacy" organizations. The board's growing list of critics described the GAB as a rogue agency and accused it of partisan bias after it assisted prosecutors in the John Doe investigation. The state Supreme Court halted the probe in July, saying it had no basis in law.
Punchline?
Republican supporters of the bill to dismantle the GAB say it will restore confidence in the oversight of elections and elected officials.
Yes, voters in Wisconsin can now be completely confident that all of their future elections will be rigged.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a40592/scott-walker-wisconsin-government-accountability-board/
Nothing to see here folks, just Republicans being Republicans :laugh:
Was Walker found guilty of anything? NO! It was a partisan witch hunt just to smear him in time for him to run for President, why wouldn't he purge them?
Cigar
12-20-2015, 03:53 PM
Every time the Democrats went after Walker, he not only survived, he got even stronger. That pisses off the liberals.
Was he the first drop out? or the Second?
Tahuyaman
12-20-2015, 10:56 PM
Was he the first drop out? or the Second?
how do the voters in Wisconsin repond to him? Every time the liberals went after him, he beat them and gained strength. That really pisses them off.
You you had national left wing radio Rush Limbaugh wanna-be's like Ed Schultz dedicating their air time to defeating him. MSNBC made it their mission to have him thrown out and he punked them all.
Walker made the the left look like fools and that pisses them off.
Common
12-20-2015, 11:01 PM
Scott Walker doesnt need any hit pieces, hes one of the biggest pieces of shit in politics and I was ecstatic he didnt get as much support from republicans as even the pig of jersey
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