Monthly Archives: January 2012

Inside Milwaukee: John Doe Threatens Walker

-By Bruce Murphy

January 31, 2012- Where are the attack dogs on the right?

One way to measure the seriousness of the ongoing John Doe investigation nibbling away at Scott Walker is to consider how quiet Republicans and conservatives have gotten. The investigation headed up by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm has already arrested three former aides to Walker. More are expected to be charged, and the investigation seems to be inexorably climbing up the chain of command toward Walker. But conservatives aren’t exactly rushing to condemn Chisholm.

Truthout: Who REALLY Pays Taxes

-By Richard D Wolff

January 30, 2012- As US capitalism suffers from a crisis now in its fifth year with no end in sight, the Republican presidential candidates and Obama endlessly repeat cheerleading for the system as if it were, as usual, beyond question or criticism. Obama's State of the Union Speech at least found campaign fodder in referring to income inequality.

He tried to make political use of what the Occupy movement inserted onto the mass public consciousness so powerfully last autumn.

Obama even suggested a 30 percent minimum tax on those earning $1 million or more annually.The details of that suggestion remain murky with little chance that the kinds of Congresses recently elected would pass it. In any case, Obama's suggested 30 percent minimum tax would still remain far, far below the much higher individual income tax rates that the richest Americans had to pay in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

Think Progress: BREAKING: TransCanada’s Dirty Keystone XL Jobs Claims Draw Complaint To SEC

-By Brad Johnson

January 26, 2012- ThinkProgress Green has learned that TransCanada, the foreign tar sands company behind the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, is facing a potential inquiry into whether it deliberately deceived investors by inflating the job-creation potential of the project. Greenpeace has filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over TransCanada’s “false or misleading statements about the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project.”

Cap Times: Crime and Courts: Criminal complaint reveals Walker email

-By Steven Elbow

January 26, 2012- An email from Scott Walker, sent from his campaign email account in May 2010, directs an aide now facing felony charges to avoid embarrassing news stories.

"We cannot afford another story like this one," reads the email, documented in a criminal complaint made public Thursday. "No one can give them any reason to do another story. That means no laptops, no websites, no time away during the workday, etc."

The criminal complaint that documents the email is against Kelly Rindfleisch, Walker's deputy chief of staff while he was Milwaukee County executive. It demonstrates that the story clearly concerned Walker about the activities of his employees.

"This email … with its reference to no more laptops during the workday, provides an apparent explanation for the drop in Rindfleisch's daytime fundraising activity in the few weeks following Darlene Wink's resignation," the criminal complaint against Rindfleisch states.

Huffington Post: House Democrats Seek To Subpoena Koch Industries Over Keystone XL

-By Lucia Graves

January 25, 2012- WASHINGTON — House Democrats took the political offensive on Keystone Wednesday, seeking to probe connections between the multi-billion dollar project and Koch Industries, the Kansas-based energy conglomerate that has funded many a conservative cause.

At a hearing before a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) called for subpoenaing representatives from Koch Industries over their alleged financial stakes in an approval of Keystone XL, arguing the committee has an "obligation" to understand who would benefit if the controversial oil pipeline was constructed.

The comments come just one week after Obama rejected a permit for the pipeline, which would stretch from tar sands in Canada to refineries in Texas, saying Republicans had jeopardized the review process by requiring the administration to render a decision by Feb. 21.

PR Watch: Scott Walker’s Plutonomy: An Economy for the One Percent

-by Mary Bottari

January 24, 2012- While volunteer after volunteer from each of Wisconsin's 72 counties marched into the state's election board to deposit over one million signatures for the recall of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Walker was nowhere to be found.

At the hour petitions were being deposited on January 17, Mother Jones revealed that Walker was scheduled to attend a high-dollar fundraiser in the heart of the New York's financial district at 339 Park Avenue — the towering headquarters for global financial giant CitiGroup. The $5,000 per couple fundraiser was hosted by none other than Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, former CEO of AIG.

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