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March 28, 2024

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Friday, January 28, 2022

Governor Scott Walker Snubbed: Request for Rail Funds Denied, WI on Hook for $150 Million

By Patrick DePula

Gov. Walker Rail Plan Derailed.

 

During his gubernatorial campaign, Governor Scott Walker consistently labeled the $800 million Wisconsin received in federal high speed rail funds as a waste of tax payer dollars, an Obama Administration boondoggle, and completely unnecessary.  Shortly after winning his election, he got his wish; US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood happily took back the money allotted to Wisconsin and redistributed it to other states who actually desired to enter the 21st century, provide transportation alternatives and create jobs.  Governor Walker then touted the loss of the money as a huge win for his administration, and the taxpayer.

Does this A** make my truck look big?

Fast forward a couple of months when our inept governor realized that the Milwaukee to Chicago Hiawatha line actually needs improvements, new train sets and 8 locomotives that would have been provided for with the original $810 million rail grant. So what does he do? He applies for $150 million in federal funds to, well, buy new train sets, replace locomotives, and upgrade the tracks. You can’t make this stuff up.

In a press release issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation,  Secretary Ray LaHood said:

“President Obama and Vice President Biden’s vision for a national rail system will help ensure America is equipped to win the future with the fastest, safest and most efficient transportation network in the world,” said Secretary LaHood. “The investments we’re making today will help states across the country create jobs, spur economic development and boost manufacturing in their communities.”

In a conference call, LaHood avoided answering a question about whether Monday’s decision was related to Walker’s rejection of the original $810 million grant, which negated two decades of planning by previous administrations. But Secretary LaHood repeatedly used the word “reliable” in describing the leadership of states selected for rail funding.

WI State Rep. Brett Hulsey -D, Madison.

State Rep. Brett Hulsey, D-Madison, quickly showered the Walker Administration with well-deserved praise:

“This announcement shows all our neighbors get federal train help but Wisconsin,” he says. “Gov Walker’s war on transportation choices pays off for our neighbors while our outdated train lines don’t get the upgrades they need.”

It appears that Rep. Hulsey is talking about  Talgo, a Spanish high-speed train manufacturer that announced it would likely close and move its manufacturing facility, and the jobs that go with it, to Illinois shortly after completing the trains already ordered.

Wisconsin taxpayers will now foot the bill to upgrade the Hiawatha line between Milwaukee and Chicago. This is the busiest inter-city passenger rail corridor in the midwest and well-used by both business and leisure travelers. In fact,Ridership on the Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha rail line has doubled in the past eight years, hitting a record 792,848 in 2010. The $150 million in upgrades the state will now need to self-finance would have paid for maintenance costs on the proposed high-speed rail line for nearly 20 years.  Even the cost associated with the completely unjustified increased security measures at the Wisconsin State Capitol has now reached nearly $7 million in a matter of a few months. Yet Governor Walker derailed the train because it “might” have cost that much in subsidies annually.  More accurately, the federal government would have covered some, if not all, of the maintenance costs in contrast with Walker simply flushing money away to finance his personal palace guard. Sadly, while the rest of the midwest builds out high speed rail infrastructure with an eye toward the future, Wisconsin stays firmly planted in the 1950′s.  Thanks Scott.

Total Recall.

 

Comments

comments

Comments
59 Responses to “Governor Scott Walker Snubbed: Request for Rail Funds Denied, WI on Hook for $150 Million”
  1. ibwilliamsi says:

    As my good friend Bugs Bunny would say, “What a maroon!”

  2. Winski says:

    Hey, Scotty!!! How does it feel to get flushed in public – by a REPUBLICAN TRANSPORTATION SECY..??? hee…heee..heee..heee…

    WOOOOSHHH…..!!!!!

  3. Kath the Scrappy says:

    YES! Anyone interested in Wisconsin needs to watch Rachel tonite:

    Do special elections have predictive value?
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#42982809

    She interviews Rep Peter Barca (the Assembly Rep that stood up and kept saying ‘this is against the rules! No 24 hr notice!’) He talks about some of the downright crazy laws they’re trying to ram through before recall elections. But some of the response from so many voters he talks about is more soothing. GO WISCONSIN!

    What I find REALLY worrisome is the law requiring ID that takes effect immediately – BEFORE people are allowed to vote in the Recall Elections. The whole situation is nuts.

  4. auni says:

    Ms. Maddow had a great show again tonight. I love that gal! Our local paper had a letter today defending la’ quitty pants. It’s published once a week, so will need to get an answer together for next week. Lots of talk about how our President is getting fuel prices up in order to destroy our country. It’s hard to know how to hold your face when hearing comments like that–I sort of go for the slack jaw look with gurgling sounds–I mean, what the hell–how can people be so dumb?

  5. Zyxomma says:

    Another excellent post. Thanks.

  6. benlomond2 says:

    “limit abisentee voting to only the 10 days prior to an election” ??? very patriotic of them to disenfranchise those in the Armed Services of their right to vote… how convient of them to wrap themselves in “American Values” as they trod on the blood, sweat and tears of others….

  7. InterestedPerson says:

    Who is going to learn history in a public school with 40 kids in the class,
    one recess, no paraprofessionals, no librarian, no computer teacher,
    no Phys. Ed., art, music? The excellent public K-5 school my grandson
    attended will be this way next year. Local rock&roll radio has ads now
    claiming that the teachers’ unions are “standing against children’s right to
    education” at voucher private schools, now to be funded regardless of ]
    parents’ income. So the tax payers will get to support the private education
    of kids in so-called Chrisitan schools, while the public schools are destroyed.
    Ads paid by Koch money, I am sure.
    And who will be voting in Wisconsin…the legislature is working on bills that would
    limit abisentee voting to only the 10 days prior to an election, require photo
    IDs…including for college kids to have their current address…so for the Sept 6
    election, they will need new drivers licences….
    It just goes on.
    So if people forget all this in November when Walker can be recalled,….this state
    willv deserve it…

  8. aussiegal77 says:

    Just like my conservative friends who have shown time and again that logical reasoning is not their strong suit – Scott Walker once again defies wisdom and goes for the most idiotic option. Well done Governor Walker – a few more bumbles like this and you might rival Sarah Palin for the Worst Governor Ever award.

  9. Simple Mind says:

    Beyond the apparent foolishness of Walker’s actions, you see the type of romantic naivete of the addled pothead in 1969 who argued that we just put flowers in the barrels of rifles, war would stop. While Palin and Walker would sputter at the comparison to Woodstock nation, there are parallels. Walker and his Tea Party friends rightfully revere that core of the American myth – every person free to make it (or not) on the strength of their own talents and determination. Their problem is that they’ve bought the myth as reality. Take a vignette from the recent Atlantic Monthly article on our favorite Sarah Palin. It recounts how during her short tenure as Alaska governor, SP worked (with the Democrats, no less) to reform state oil taxation, actually to raise taxes. During this time, she was receiving calls twice a week from Dick Cheney, trying to persuade her to back off. We now live in a world when a corporation is so powerful that it can have the vice President of the most powerful nation on the planet do its errands. Sure, let’s take all restraints off these corporations and see how far Palin and her “real Americans” get. Far from taking a lesson from this, Palin and her acolytes somehow believe against all evidence that if governments just went away, we’d all be free to compete, everyone would prosper, no one would lose, and all the children would be above average. This type of romantic devotion to laissez faire gave us child labor and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. I’m tired of Tea Partiers claiming that progressives are the dewy-eyed romantics when it is actually them who wistfully pine for old days that never were. As Walker and his supporters are learning, the result of their “go it alone” philosophy is that you are alone.

    • aussiegal77 says:

      Well, actually us Progressives are now the Evil that is tearing apart the moral, economic and social fabric of America. I guess we’re the new boogeyman.

      As I’ve said – logic and reasoning are not the strong suit of conservatives. I’ve given up trying to talk to them – there is no dialogue to be had. I just let them wallow in their abject fear of every shadow from their fevered dreams where Glenn Beck’s chalkboard holds all the answers.

      • Simple Mind says:

        Actually, your description is exactly right. We progressives are tearing apart the moral fabric of the nation – as they believe it to be. They seem to believe that we are still a nation of hardy, individual pioneers, steering our covered wagons into the opportunity-filled west where every man has an open and equal shot at finding his dream – unless of course your skin is brown or you are poor or you are female. Everything would be wonderful and rosy-cheeked if it wasn’t for us bureaucrats with our pesky regulations requiring an 8-hour work day, a minimum wage and (gasp!) medical insurance. They completely ignore the existence of corporations like BP, Exxon, Massey Energy, and Halliburton. You don’t want to fish in oil-polluted waters? Well, you are free to go fish somewhere else. Don’t want to work in a Massey mine? You are free to quit and go work somewhere else. What? There is nowhere else? Nah, Nah, Nah, I can’t hear you.

        • sj says:

          According to the book “The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap” by Stephanie Coontz, those “hardy, individual pioneers” weren’t as independent as one was led to believe. In order to survive and thrive, a sharing of skills, labor, and tools along with a sense of community were necessary to settle the West. What this meant was sharing work with neighbors to build cabins, haying fields, butchering animals, etc. Also, these communities had a borrowing system for tools because tools were scarce. Sharing tools made sense because, let’s face it, those covered wagons weren’t spacious which limited how much any family could take. They couldn’t very well stuff in tools like wheel barrels, shovels, axes, etc as well as food for the trip, the family furniture, and personal belongings before running out of wagon space. So when those “hardy, individual pioneers” arrived at their “new” home, they needed neighbors who shared.

    • Writing from Alaska says:

      Links are sufficient, really – ! 🙂

  10. scout says:

    Patrick, Thank you for your continuing efforts to shed light into the dark corners. January 2012, is that when Walker will be recalled?

  11. Dagian says:

    *Off-topic alert!*

    Holy bat guano.

    Shiloh Baptist Church receives threats after comments from Sean Hannity

    By Hamil R. Harris, Published: April 28 | Updated: Wednesday, April 27, 4:41 PM

    Shiloh Baptist Church in the District said it has received threatening phone calls and e-mails after an Easter visit from President Obama and a conservative television commentator’s subsequent playing of a videotape in which the pastor said that those espousing racial prejudice do so “under the protective cover of talk radio.”

    The Rev. Wallace Charles Smith said the church has received more than 100 threats since Fox News channel’s Sean Hannity aired a tape Monday of a speech Smith gave in January 2010 at Eastern University in Saint Davids, Pa.

    “We received a fax that had the image of a monkey with a target across is face,” Smith said. “My secretary has received telephone calls that have been so vulgar until she has had to hang up.”

    Smith, who shared several of the e-mails with The Post, said he had not notified authorities but is consulting with church leaders about what to do.

    On Sunday, Obama and the first family visited the church, founded in the 1860s by former slaves. On Monday, Hannity aired a clip of a speech Smith gave when he served as president of Palmer Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.

    “It may not be Jim Crow anymore,” Smith says in the videotape. “Now, Jim Crow wears blue pinstripes, goes to law school and carries fancy briefs in cases. And now, Jim Crow has become James Crow, esquire. And he doesn’t have to wear white robes anymore because now he can wear the protective cover of talk radio or can get a regular news program on Fox.”

    Smith, 62, said that he had been asked to give a speech on racism and that he “was giving some background on what I thought were some of the issues regarding race in this country.”

    Hannity compared Smith to Obama’s controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whom Obama denounced after YouTube videos surfaced showing Wright saying that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were “America’s chickens . . . coming home to roost.”

    Shiloh Baptist Church receives threats after comments from Sean Hannity

    * Smaller Text Larger Text Text Size
    * Print
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    By Hamil R. Harris, Published: April 28 | Updated: Wednesday, April 27, 4:41 PM

    Shiloh Baptist Church in the District said it has received threatening phone calls and e-mails after an Easter visit from President Obama and a conservative television commentator’s subsequent playing of a videotape in which the pastor said that those espousing racial prejudice do so “under the protective cover of talk radio.”

    The Rev. Wallace Charles Smith said the church has received more than 100 threats since Fox News channel’s Sean Hannity aired a tape Monday of a speech Smith gave in January 2010 at Eastern University in Saint Davids, Pa.

    143

    Comments

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    * Corrections?

    * ( Hamil Harris / THE WASHINGTON POST ) – Rev. Wallace Charles Smith, pastor of the Shiloh Baptist Church of Northwest Washington conducts an Easter Morning baptismal service on April 24, 2011, before the Presient arrives.
    * ( Hamil Harris / THE WASHINGTON POST ) – President Barack Obama visits the Shiloh Baptist Church for Easter service on April 24, 2011 in Washington.

    *
    *

    ( Hamil Harris / THE WASHINGTON POST ) – Rev. Wallace Charles Smith, pastor of the Shiloh Baptist Church of Northwest Washington conducts an Easter Morning baptismal service on April 24, 2011, before the Presient arrives.

    “We received a fax that had the image of a monkey with a target across is face,” Smith said. “My secretary has received telephone calls that have been so vulgar until she has had to hang up.”

    Smith, who shared several of the e-mails with The Post, said he had not notified authorities but is consulting with church leaders about what to do.

    On Sunday, Obama and the first family visited the church, founded in the 1860s by former slaves. On Monday, Hannity aired a clip of a speech Smith gave when he served as president of Palmer Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.

    “It may not be Jim Crow anymore,” Smith says in the videotape. “Now, Jim Crow wears blue pinstripes, goes to law school and carries fancy briefs in cases. And now, Jim Crow has become James Crow, esquire. And he doesn’t have to wear white robes anymore because now he can wear the protective cover of talk radio or can get a regular news program on Fox.”

    Smith, 62, said that he had been asked to give a speech on racism and that he “was giving some background on what I thought were some of the issues regarding race in this country.”

    Hannity compared Smith to Obama’s controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whom Obama denounced after YouTube videos surfaced showing Wright saying that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were “America’s chickens . . . coming home to roost.”

    (See a Washington Post interview with Wright from March 2010.)

    “Wright’s contentious sermons hit the airwaves and forced Obama eventually to denounce his spiritual leader of more than 20 years,” Hannity said. “Now, here’s the twist: Dr. Wallace Charles Smith doesn’t think that there’s anything wrong with what Jeremiah Wright preached.

    “I don’t believe that it is a coincidence out of all the churches in the country that Obama finds himself sitting in, why is he always in pews listening to such controversial spiritual leaders?” Hannity said.

    In an e-mail Wednesday, Hannity said he sought out comment from Smith and offered him “an open invitation to explain his comments on our show and he refused. We played his own words in full context but now it’s time for him to explain.”

    Several presidents have worshipped at Shiloh over the decades, including Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

    • bubbles says:

      oh boy. dear old Sean, here we thought he losing his star status on Flux teevee due to LaPalin and La Beck but no. he shows he still got what it takes to be complete and total jerk. way to go Sean Hannity.
      you are good for another year at Shmooze Nooz.

  12. Millie says:

    The guy is a jerk and I’ll wager will be recalled after his one year anniversary as ‘playing’ their governor.

  13. LibertyLover says:

    Walker is supported by the Koch Bros. The Koch Bros own oil companies. Cars need oil and gas. Fast rail lines mean less oil used than would be used in cars. This means less profits for the Kochs. Therefore, Walker could not possibly support the rail line when his bread and butter comes from those that don’t.

    • tigerwine says:

      Oh, LL, I hadn’t thought of it that way! The plot thickens – wonder how many other Rep. Govs turned down the $$? I know FL. It would be interesting to see which states accepted, and if they were Dems or Reps.

      • mike from iowa says:

        As of March 29th Florida,Ohio and Wisconsin have said no. North Carolina has passed legislation sending the money back,but,if they can keep it it goes into a fund to be used for other projects. Sec LaHood so use it or lose it.. From Huffpo.

  14. Baker's Dozen says:

    Scott Walker: A leading AINO–American in Name Only 🙂

  15. Dagian says:

    Don’t follow Walker’s logic. There is none. The Mad Hatter makes me sense than he does.

    In addition–maybe there is something to the tinfoil hat brigade in 2012, in light of this!

    Bristol Palin’s life in the spotlight
    The daughter of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will appear in her own reality series with actors Kyle and Christopher Massey, the latest turn in the limelight for the young “Dancing With the Stars” contestant and teen abstinence spokeswoman.

    • Dagian says:

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/tv-column

      Funniest comment about this to date: dcle
      Isn’t the Tea Party’s collective head going to explode when they realize their Princess is moving in with two black men?

      Most cogent comment: cassandra9

      Bristol Palin seems like a sweet girl. But she’s an unwed teen mother who presents a false image of the consequences of having kids while still in high school. Her parents at first made up the gap between what a teen mom with a high school degree can earn and the income required for a comfortable life. Then she and her family parlayed her mother’s celebrity status into well-paid celebrity work for Bristol. She hasn’t used these wonderful breaks to get a college degree. With no real skills, talent or abilities Bristol Palin has joined the ranks of L.A. wannabe-something-specials. And I’m supposed to watch this sweet but essentially mediocre wannabe navigate what is reputedly the utterly shallow culture of L.A.? Remind me, why is she moving to L.A. and what does she hope to achieve there? She’s tried acting and she’s wooden. She can’t compete on looks in L.A. and her dancing wouldn’t get her a paying job in the back line of the chorus. I suppose L.A. is an education of sorts, but without talent or stunning looks, Miss Palin needs a college education. Making education a top priority was something notably missing from the weekly recitation of Palin family values on “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” This makes Bristol Palin’s elevation to reality TV star all the more troubling. I guess we’re supposed to watch her reality show because Bristol Palin is famous for being a famous person’s daughter, not because she’s going to get a real job any time soon.

      • Jim K says:

        I thought she moved to Arizona?

      • bubbles says:

        ouch.

      • mo says:

        Nice analysis, Dagian.

        “I guess we’re supposed to watch her reality show because Bristol Palin is famous for being a famous person’s daughter, not because she’s going to get a real job any time soon.”

    • mike from iowa says:

      Abstinence makes the Church grow fondlers.

    • Dagian says:

      Speaking of illogical:

      ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Bristol Palin admits her recent change in appearance was due to a procedure — but not plastic surgery.

      The 20-year-old daughter of 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin tells Us Weekly that she underwent corrective jaw surgery in December, a month after she finished third on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” Her face now appears thinner, with higher cheekbones and an angular jaw.

      Pupster wrote:
      Don’t know who she thinks she’s fooling, but corrective surgery doesn’t require a chin implant, liposuction under the chins and cheeks, and a brow lift. She got all of that, not jaw realignment, which doesn’t change the shape of your face. Maybe the Palins are congenital liars? Too bad there’s no corrective surgery for that.

      “Oh, and she originally lied and said she didn’t get surgery, but that her face changed due to diet. That was yesterday. Today, she now claims it was corrective jaw surgery, but that would have required breaking her jaw and wiring it shut, so when did that happen? And why did she originally lie?”

  16. Scott Walker is getting schooled on Proverbs 11:29 — “He who troubles his own house will inherit the wind.”

    Ironic. You would think that one of the GOPs Christian soldiers would be familiar with such wisdom.

    • mike from iowa says:

      Rethuglicans like dubya took his bible learning to heart. He wanted to be known as the Potus for the least among us. He came up with two small groups to lavish trillions on-millionaires and billionaires.The two smallest minority groups he could support.

    • bubbles says:

      yes. it is amazing that so many Christians in the GOP are unaware of the wisdom of Proverbs or any other kind of wisdom for that matter.
      wisdom seems never to visit nor reside anywhere near wherever they hang their hats.

  17. John says:

    I know a lot of long time Republicans who have firm, respectible conservative values. What I can’t understand is why they remain Republicants as the party shifts from conservative to crazy.

  18. BigPete says:

    That’s odd…..a GOP politician proposing infrastructure improvements!

    Silly billy! Doesn’t he realize that with tax cuts for the wealthy/corporations coupled with spending cuts for the poor everything eventually- magically, even- works out for the best?

    What will the Koch Brothers say!

  19. AKLynne says:

    What never fails to amaze and anger me are guys like Walker who huff and puff and strut around being so macho and independent…until there is an earthquake, flood, tornado, hurricane, fire, drought…or no federal government money for upgrades to their trains. Oops! Then they are the first in line with their hands out to take all that money and take credit/brag about it. If I didn’t know what —– (fill that in with the word of your choice) they are, I’d be surprised as well. No chance of that. They do it every time. Recall the guy as quick as you can.

    • Waay Out West says:

      Just take Governor Goodhair Perry of Texas as a concrete example.

      April 2009: “We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb its nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that.” A day later he said that Texans “are fed up with what’s coming out of Washington,” and therefore they’ve been inspired to “debate” certain questions among themselves, notably “can we secede.” Just to clarify his remarks further, a gubernatorial spokeswoman said that Perry indeed believes Texas can secede if it so chooses.

      April 2011: “You see hundreds of thousands of acres of Texas burning and you know that there will soon be emergency declarations, and we did that now a couple of weeks ago, but still no response from this administration. There is a point in time where you say, hey, what’s going on here. You have to ask why are you taking care of Alabama and other states? I know our letter didn’t get lost in the mail.”

      He was ignoring the facts

      “But an administration official with knowledge of federal assistance provided to Texas tells CNN the state has been already been allocated 16 fire management assistance grants that provide financial support for the specific purpose of fighting fires. Texas has been approved to receive six more grants of this kind to aid state and local governments with firefighting efforts that include equipment, field camps, mobilizing and demobilizing activities. The most recent fire management grant was approved Wednesday.”

      in favor of playing the victim and accusing President Obama of payback:
      “Perry has also charged Obama with punishing Texas for his open opposition to administration-led reform on health care and the environment, a charge which the president has denied.”

      http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/29/perry-laments-lack-of-federal-aid-for-wildfires/

  20. tallimat says:

    So there is a theme with all these tea baggin public office holders.

    hypocrisy…
    clueless…

    (not necessarly in that order)

  21. Winski says:

    So has Guv. Walker run begging yet to Jimbo DeMinto for Pee-Party funds?? His answer will be NO there as well..they got no money – just SC BBQ left over from last weekend’s John Birch Society rally. Oh, maybe he should call his buddy Dave and ask him for some money… I’m sure he’ll send it straight along with no strings attached….

    Good on ya Scott.. You have screwed this one up BEYOND repair except by putting you in PRISON.

  22. VHTG says:

    I don’t see this as a problem. Governor Walker keeps proclaiming that everything that he does is to protect the taxpayer and balance the budget. So all he needs to do is have the Koch Brothers pay for the rail lines.

    They bought Walker’s governorship for him, why can’t they buy him some trains?

  23. Bev says:

    It always amazes me how people will vote against their own best interests just to not vote outside their party.

    They vote for an idiot who will run their state and do not even bother to vet him…do not listen to what they say when running, look and see what they did before they ran…

  24. jwa says:

    it’s all about Capitalism don cha see? High speed rail provides public transportation and reduces our dependence on oil – foreign and domestic – anybody want to guess what the Koch bros major business is?

    • scout says:

      Kochs don’t need no regulation: “North Pole drinking water well shut down by refinery contamination” Fairbanks 2009

      Koch capitalism at it’s finest: “Lawmakers Call for Alaska Gas Price Investigation” April 2011

      Flint Hills would be the refinery in North Pole. Flint Hills is owned by Koch.

    • mike from iowa says:

      I’m gonna guess prostitution.

      • silverball says:

        ….when it comes to politicians and their corporate supporters…i’m thinkin’ you are correct…….

    • Bastards!

  25. mike from iowa says:

    I can see windmills from my place. Southeast of me,about fifteen miles is the start of nearly 300 wind generators and I can see them. They stretch for nearly 30 miles over what is called Buffalo Ridge,part of the scenic by-way through Northwest Iowa. There are plans for hundreds more around here, They just haven’t been built,yet.

  26. Cassie Jeep says:

    Typical myopic Republican. They are so predictable, aren’t they?

  27. PaPa23 says:

    Besides putting his state behind in modern rail facilities Walker has also dealt a serious blow to renewable energy resources. Three planned wind farms have cancelled plans for building in Wisconsin. Their utility regulating commission had done a two year study on the value and siting regulations of wind farms. They had public input from all stakeholders from the wind farm contractors to those opposed for environmental reasons and came up with regulations on the siting and operation of the farms. Walker came in and almost immediately suspended the implementation of those rules. One company had already applied for local permits for their project. Now three projects are dead.
    Those projects represented investment in Wisconsin, jobs, income for the property owners and renewable energy for the future. Now that’s lost. I guess the Koch brothers don’t approve of wind power.

    • They are soon to be gone from this earth. You’d think they’d want to leave a legacy behind that was something other than having people curse their memories….

  28. Molly says:

    This guy is SUCH a putz.

    It’s not my fault; I voted for the smart guy with a college degree.

  29. mike from iowa says:

    Before we straighten out the messes these RWNJ create,there will be several new psychiatric terms available to describe Rethuglican mindsets. Adjectives,adverbs, superlatives,its all there. Guv Walker and others like him suffer from advanced cases of monumental stupidity.He seems to be so full of himself that he hasn’t bothered to notice he burns his bridges before he crosses them. Too bad Wisconsonites can’t bust him back to the rank of potato peeler,something he could do and not harm anyone.

  30. Alaska Pi says:

    Oh- a year is a looonnnggg time when you have to deal with idiots like Governor Walker, eh?
    So- if Talgo does leave WI, how many good and decent jobs go with it?

  31. Sharon says:

    I’m still amazed he won the election and stunned over how he turned on the very people that elected him. WI is full of good people with families and dreams and financial goals. God help them if they were members of a union. Walker has driven a stake through the heart of that state and I sincerely hope the people of WI keep their promise to recall this horrible person.

  32. Sally says:

    Hopefully, voters across the country are seeing the light. The GOP is not for the people. They are beholden to the billionaire corps and Kochs who bought their elections for them. No one else. Let the corporations find the money for these projects. I thought Walker and his ilk were for letting the states solve their own problems. OK, Scotty boy, solve this one and keep your voters happy. Welcome to the big leagues

  33. Diane says:

    What an ass.
    I find myself saying that (and worse) when describing republicans and teabaggers these days.

    My grandmother used a saying that describes these idiots, “cut off your nose to spite your face”!