Andre's Executive Order

In today's world, we've lost the ability to be meaningfully critical about our politicians. I don’t mean that we've lost our ability to CRITICIZE them – far from it; We make a celebration out of criticizing political officials and our government. What I mean is that we have lost the ability to look at the actions of a politician and to compare those results to what we voted for and what we were promised. We have a hard time holding the specific person we put into office accountable for their decisions and policies. The tendency, today, is to line up on party or candidate lines and to do everything and anything we can do defend or attack a specific politician no matter what they do. Critically evaluating patterns in politics is how one achieves clarity. As officials make choices, you look at the information you have like jigsaw puzzle pieces handed to you day by day. You then look at the explanations provided by those political leaders as an assertion of the puzzle will look...

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Scott Walker's intentions, presuming no underlying plans, are admirable. In fact, my first impression of the prank call played on the Governor was the stark realization that he genuinely believes in what he's doing. However the methods he has chosen to enact this agenda have overshadowed those goals and sent Wisconsin down a destructive road. Here's how we got where we are in short. The Budget Repair Bill was introduced with the heavy taint of deception: Assembly Democrats being given no warning for the 144 page document that would be dropped in their laps for a same day vote on its introduction. The plan was to rush sweeping changes to government employment through the Legislature in five days to avoid backlash from the unions. Wisconsin Republicans legislators didn't come to the legislative process to create a law fixing the budget, it was already written. Instead they were essentially told in advance how the process ...

Governor Walker says the deadline to refinance Wisconsin's debt it today. The word 'refinance' suggests we will seek a lower interest rate and save money. But if you listen to Walker, he never actually says that. He says it will help him avoid having to lay off workers which is possible. But the truth about the money itself is that he's borrowing allocated tax funds for the May debt payment to balance his current budget. That borrowing will result in another 14-25M in interest owed by the State turning 165M into nearly 200M. The argument can be made that that losing jobs is worse for the economy than acquiring some additional debt. But that argument rings hollow when you consider the impact of Walker's and the Republican's budgets on the economy as a whole. Beware those who treat fiscal responsibility as an ENDS instead of a MEANS. Cutting spending by the by government during a recession when the general public and private enterprise is skittish about THEIR spen...

Today I'm going to walk you through an analysis of the logic behind protesting the Budget Repair bill that I think anyone regardless of political orientation can follow. First, some facts taken from Scott Walker and his Administration. I've placed some citation sources in the margin for areas I thought might be helpful. Campaign Promises The cornerstone of Scott Walker's campaign promises were on numerous items including stopping the train, cutting taxes, cutting spending, and creating 250,000 jobs. He also made numerous smaller promises none of which are relevant to this discussion one way or another. These promises are pretty standard Republican election points, the only thing particularly interesting is that the number of jobs promised is very ambitious – but good for him. Set your sights high. We need jobs. State of the Budget In Scott Walker's State of the State address, he referred to the budget in dire terms: “First, let me be clear: we have an economic and fisca...

“John Kotter suggests that for change to be successful, 75% of a company's management needs to "buy into" the change. So for change to happen there needs to be a shared a sense of urgency around the need for change. And this will result from honest and open dialogue with your people about what's happening in your market and with your competition. If many people start talking about the change you propose, the urgency can build and feed on itself. To lead change, you need to bring together a coalition, or team, of influential people whose power comes from a variety of sources, including job title, status, expertise, and political importance. You can find effective change leaders at all levels within your organization - they don't necessarily follow the traditional company hierarchy. It is important to get an emotional commitment from these key people as you build a team to support your change initiative.” The above excerpt is taken from John Kotter, as stated, an ex...

As an attorney, one of the things I have to constantly be concerned with is a conflict of interest. It's a term that you hear on the news every once in a while, but most folks don't really truly get it. This is mostly because it just doesn't come up in normal conversation if you're not an attorney, an accountant, or a public official. In simple terms, a conflict of interest is when a person or organization benefits or has a relationship with a certain cause or outcome of a situation and is then approached to do something asking them to go in the opposite direction. For example: If I have shares of stock in a IBM, and someone pays me to sue IBM, I have a conflict of interest. My interest in the profitability of IBM and my interest in doing right by my client and taking money from IBM run counter to each other. In simpler terms, if I'm on a diet and decide to order cake, I have a conflict of interest. My diet and the cake work counter to each other and it is questiona...

The hardest thing to explain to folks who are not part of the Wisconsin protests now in their second week is that this isn't about money. The spin placed on it by the far right and even Walker wants to portray this fight as being about greedy unions refusing to make concessions to a tight budget during tight times. That's a load of crap. The unions have been willing to talk concessions in order to help with budget shortfalls since the beginning. In addition, the state was on track for a 121 million dollar surplus when governor Walker took the job. So it's hard to understand how a 121 million dollar surplus turns into a 137 million dollar shortfall in one month that is so much an emergency that it requires a budget repair bill passed in 5 days or Armageddon is upon us. Well no matter what you think about this, the whole process of how it's happening feels wrong. Even if you don't want to question why a surplus budget became a dangerous deficit in one month requiring ...

Before we get started today, I found it amazing that Rachel Maddow's segment 'The GoP: Bakes sales v. Billionaires' mirrored my connect the dots article in a surprisingly tight fashion. It was reassuring to find that I wasn't the only one who saw the connection between Citizens United and the moves by Governor Walker to crush Wisconsin public labor. I've linked that show segment in the margin if you want to see her take on the idea that what's happening here in Wisconsin is really an effort to let Republican sweep the table in upcoming elections. Whether your conservative or liberal, I'd give it a look. I was at the protests on the capital last night and again was amazed at the determined front presented by public servants. Fire fighters, already exempt from the bill's dismantling of negotiation rights, stood in full uniform with us and marched together through the capital. But it wasn't just unions that showed up. Signs hung from the central banist...

Citizens of the United States. Citizens of Wisconsin. I come before you today to discuss how I will reduce government spending and help deal with the an out of control deficit. To better serve the public interest and ensure the economic prosperity of our economy, I have decided to balance the budget by stripping away your first amendment rights. Sound ridiculous? Of course it does. What do your first amendment rights cost? What does stripping them away gain for the national or state budget? The answer is nothing. There is no direct connection between the expenditures of government and this particular right, and the entire statement feels like someone told you that they were going to mow the lawn by changing the water in their fish tank. Scott Walker's budget for Wisconsin strips away the rights for State unions to bargain for anything except salary. In addition, salary 'negotiation' is rendered almost entirely dead. If any raise goes over the consumer price index, it would ...