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Scott Walker, Koch Money And That Iran Taint

October 14, 2011 by The Political E...

Let's go out on a limb and predict that when Scott Walker is allowed to raise unlimited funds in the recall election coming his way that the Koch brothers will again be major donors.

[Update: Dan Bice discloses Walker appearance at Koch-related conservative gathering.]

And let's also predict that Walker will take every dime of these funds without flinching at the disclosures about Koch interests' bribery in relationships with Iran.

In May 2008, a unit of Koch Industries Inc., one of the world’s largest privately held companies, sent Ludmila Egorova-Farines, its newly hired compliance officer and ethics manager, to investigate the management of a subsidiary in Arles in southern France. In less than a week, she discovered that the company had paid bribes to win contracts.

Wisconsin innovations: worker's compensation, public employee unions, The Wave and now: Protest pizza via the Web

September 20, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

Egyptians send pizzaIt's historical fact that Wisconsin was the birthplace of many progressive ideas, including worker's compensation, public employee unions, child labor laws, and more. Some even have advanced convincing arguments that the nationwide sports stadium phenomenon known as The Wave originated at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison during boring late '60s Badger games.

Now add to the Wisconsin innovation list this: Protest Pizza via Web. During last spring's massive protests in Madison relating to Gov. Walker's union-busting bill, sympathizers in Egypt and nearly 50 other countries ordered pizza by email for hungry demonstrators surrounding the state Capitol. The idea originted with sympathizers across Wisconsin and quickly spread worldwide. 

Pizza by Web has now become a part of long-form, sit-in protests elsewhere. The current mass protests on Wall Street in New York City are the latest venue. From a post at FireDogLake.com:

On Bilking The Sophisticated, Or, Check It Out: We’re Suing Banks!

September 6, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

I took a break to enjoy the holiday, as I’m sure many of you did, but my inbox kept busy, and on Friday came a doozy, courtesy of the Washington Post.

You remember that little bit of a banking crisis we had a couple of years back, where banks around the world might have possibly, maybe, just a little, conspired in a giant scheme to package toxic mortgage loans into Grade A, investment-ready securities instruments, which then blew up in everyone’s faces to the tune of a whole lot of taxpayer bailouts?

Well all of a sudden, it looks like an agency of the Federal Government is looking to do something about it, in a real big way. Last Friday the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced they’re suing 17 firms (I’ll give you a list, bit it’s pretty much all the usual suspects); depending on who you ask the Feds are seeking an amount as high as $200 billion.

As Joe Biden would say, it’s a big…well, it’s a big deal, anyway, and that’s why we’re starting the new week with this one.