Recall the Recall!

OK.

The silent majority has waited and watched the tantrums of the unions, out-of-staters, Democrats, and liberals for months now. 

The anti-Walker crowd doesn't like the fact that the majority of Wisconsin voters elected Scott Walker to do exactly what he is doing.

They don't like the fact that Walker required some public union workers to contribute - for the first time - a very small percentage of their own paycheck for their own benefits and retirement pensions (what a concept!).  The burden of paying for all the public sector benefits and health care premiums was finally lifted a tiny bit off the shoulders of all other hard-working taxpayers of the state in the private sector.  You know, those workers that pay their taxes - and then also pay a much greater percentage of their own salaries towards their own health care and must set aside their own money and save for their own retirements.  Most in the private sector have no pensions of which to speak.  What really is "fair" here?  In all honesty, what Walker did was very fair - and long overdue.

Yet, even with the fact that Governor Walker, in one year has put Wisconsin back on track to be fiscally sound and job-friendly, there are those out there who think he needs to be recalled.  He did what he said he was going to do.  Most of us are quite happy with the job Walker is doing.  A small percentage of the population of Wisconsin is not.  

WHY? 

Is there ANY logic behind this recall effort - being generated by many big unions from out-of-state, in Wisconsin,  and the Obama White House.  The only explanation is that the unions do not want to lose their power.  By allowing people to chose whether or not they want to be in a union, unions stand to lose a lot of money in dues because their membership ranks go down.  When they lose money, they lose influence.  By losing union dues, they lose the ability to donate money to the Democratic Party, which in turn allows unions a great deal of power in creating a vicious cycle of soaking the taxpayers to pay for unbelievable benefits and perks.  Many states are realizing they cannot afford or maintain such public employee benefits anymore - even when  they raise taxes....over and over and over... The unions and the Dems had a great thing going - one hand washing the other - with little regard for the dire financial road our state was on nor any concern for those in the taxpaying private sector that were footing the bills.  The gravy train has jumped off the tracks.

Wisconsin now has the distinction of being the state of the never-ending recalls.  Who cares about elections anymore.  Do they mean anything?  Apparently not.   Governor Walker, Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, and four Republican members of the State Senate are facing possible recall elections simply because they did the job they were elected to do.  They have passed legislation that many voters were in favor of and wanted enacted for years (such as Voter ID or Concealed Carry) - but the Doyle/Democratic roadblocks stood in the way.  So now, the malcontents out there cannot abide by the results of an election.  

For months we have watched yet another bizarre episode in Wisconsin history - people collecting recall petition signatures in various locations,  attempting to remove elected officials for doing their jobs.  (What is ironic in all of this is that little attention has been paid to the "fleebaggers" - those 14 Democrats who fled the state to the safe haven of Illinois to avoid doing their jobs - and received a heroes welcome by the libs in Madison upon return.  What?!?  Aren't things just a wee bit twisted?)  

And then we have the joke of a Government Accountability Board.  A Board which actually encouraged cheating on signature collecting - sign once, or twice, or more!  Doesn't matter - and all names will be considered valid!!!  Thankfully a judge in Waukesha ruled that the GAB does indeed have a job to do - and it consists of making sure that petition signatures are valid.  (Just today (2/3/12), the Fourth District Court of Appeals (in Madison - what a surprise) overturned Judge Mac Davis's ruling stating that the GAB had to strike fake and duplicate signatures from recall petitions.  So the GAB can go back to business as usual and allow any and all signatures - no matter how ridiculous - to be counted.  In addition, the court ruled that recall committees could join in the lawsuit.  So all bets are off again - Madison is helping out the anti-Walker crowd as expected.  This recent decision will be appealed, and rightly so.)

For those interested and in need of a good laugh, recall petitions for all are now on-line and can be viewed at:

http://webapps.wi.gov/sites/recall/default.aspx

As expected, many petitions are a mess - fake names, incomplete data, incorrect zip codes, using P.O. Boxes when street addresses are required, scribbles that are illegible, duplicates (and more) of certain names, etc. 

WISN 1130 conservative talk show host Mark Belling talked about just three excellent examples of fraudulent petitions on his show (2/3/12). 

The first sample petition is "A case study of a suspicious recall petition" 

   -  please note most signatures from St. Nazianz are P.O. Boxes - including that of the petition circulator.  These are not valid.  Given that the petition circulator has to vouch for the validity of the signatures, and has not even followed the rules herself, the whole petition should be tossed out.  (And don't the people in St. Nazianz even know their own zip code?  Here's a hint:  it doesn't start with a "2.")

 The second sampling is:  "Obvious fraud caught, look at page 16 of this link"  

   -  First off, all the addresses are the same on the entire petition.  Keep in mind that it is the petition circulators job to ensure that all signatures are valid and all people live where they say they live.  With that in mind, how did E.T.'s signature slip through?  There are only five signatures on this petition.  #4 is a mess....followed by #5  E.T. (phone home).  So the petition circulator turned this garbage in?  Wonder if the GAB will toss it, since it appears that E.T. did write in an address....although it is the same as all the others on the petition...

And last, but not least comes: "Stupid Cheaters:  go to page 17 of this link and look at  "Debra Hoffman's" signature"

   -  it appears that Debra Hoffman forgot if she was a he.  After printing Debra Hoffman on the petition, she signed "Wayne Hoffman" in the signature space.  In addition, after looking at this page, don't all the signatures bear a fair resemblance to each other? 

If the stakes weren't so high, this would really be a hoot.  These petitions make for better reading and chuckles than the National Enquirer.  Face it, the unionistas and other anti-Walker folks didn't care about cheating or abiding by the rules when it came to gathering honest, valid petition signatures.  Many of the petition circulators had no intention of doing their jobs and making sure that people who signed gave valid information.  The recall petition drive is very  similar to the left's take on elections of the past:  Vote early, vote often!!!   However, unlike voting, these petitions - out there for all to see - are very telling in indicating how desperate and low the anti-Walker crowd is willing to go.  And unlike cheating during elections, petition signatures DO have a paper trail.  The people perpetuating the fraud CAN be sought out much more easily than those who committed voter fraud in the past.

I say throw out any petition that has even one discrepancy.  After all, the onus is on the petition circulator to have ensured that ALL signatures on their petition are valid.  If even one is not - toss the whole thing.   The petition circulator did not do their job.  Let the lefties cry and whine about "disenfranchising" then.  Too bad.  Those of us who voted Walker in are sick and tired of our votes being discounted by a group of spoiled children who cannot handle the honest results of an election.  I bet most of these petitions are just garbage.  I don't even think that there are 500,000 valid signatures out of the 2 million...or 1 million....or 700,000 that the anti-Walker crowd claims to have turned in. 

Hopefully when all is said and done, and Walker remains as our Governor, the first order of the day will be to dismantle the Government Accountability Board.   In addition, the laws should be changed to allow recalls ONLY when there is malfeasance or criminal behavior of elected officials while in office.  Recalls should not be allowed simply because people are sore losers.

Recall the recall.