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Bob Kiefert, Green Bay Progressive

Bob Kiefert, Green Bay Progressive

Bob Kiefert is the Publisher of the Northeast Wisconsin - Green Bay Progressive. Before moving to Green Bay in 2008, he was the Assistant Director of Human Resources for Milwaukee County. A graduate of UWM in 1971, he moved to Madison, where he was Executive Personnel Officer and Technology Manager for the State Department of Employment Relations. He is a former Vice Chair of the Democratic Party of Brown County, Director at the Human Resources Management Association of S.E. Wisconsin (now SHRM), and Technology Commission Chair for the City of Franklin. Bob is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force (1965-1971).

Blog entries categorized under Our View

Scott Walker Christmas Ad Really Is Creepy!

Posted by Bob Kiefert, Green Bay Progressive
Bob Kiefert, Green Bay Progressive
Bob Kiefert is the Publisher of the Northeast Wisconsin - Green Bay Progressive.
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on Thursday, 29 December 2011
in Our View

MADISON - Wisconsin's temporary Gov. Scott Walker (R) released a new ad this week in an effort to soften his image leading into the upcoming fight to recall him. Opponents have nearly gathered the required number of signatures necessary to launch the recall election.

The ad, seen below, has Scott and his wife, Tonette, distributing food at a soup kitchen with their family before cutting to a shot of the family in their living room. They pretend to be concerned with "the less fortunate among us".

Had Walker shown any real concern during 2011 for the poor or other working people, rather than making them villains in his quest for power, the whole thing might ring true. As it is, the commercial ignores the irony that the policies Walker is pursuing as governor almost guarantee that more people will need the services of soup kitchens like the one he appears in during the ad. Walker's attempt to show that he cares about people enough to personally feed them is belied by the fact that he's killing jobs and taking away the rights of working families.

The ad just comes across as a creepy political ad. Watch it yourself below and see what you think. Who is he trying to kid?

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Should the Wisconsin Capitol tree be Christmas tree?

Posted by Bob Kiefert, Green Bay Progressive
Bob Kiefert, Green Bay Progressive
Bob Kiefert is the Publisher of the Northeast Wisconsin - Green Bay Progressive.
User is currently offline
on Wednesday, 30 November 2011
in Our View

GREEN BAY - State Rep. Jim Steineke, R-Vandenbroek, has introduced a resolution to rename the Capitol Holiday Tree the Capitol Christmas Tree.

"It is what it is, it's a Christmas tree," Steineke said Tuesday. "I just think that in Wisconsin we called it a Christmas tree for 70 years. We call it a Christmas tree in Washington at the White House. I don't see any harm in calling it a Christmas tree in Madison, Wisconsin."

Sounds simple enough. Or is it?

What if you are not a Christian? Maybe you are a Native American and choose to practice your traditional beliefs. Or a Jew, or a Muslim? What if you just plain don’t believe in religion at all? Many estimate that up to 40% of Americans do not believe in the traditional concept of a god, though most choose to not to talk about it among believers.

Should the State use your tax dollars to ram someone else’s religion down your throat?

When I was with Milwaukee County, we set up a big tree in the courthouse and a variety of little trees in several departments, including Human Resources, at this time of year. The County Executive would come down and make a speech. Several employees would spend hours decorating the tree in our department, usually on a Friday afternoon. Everyone was nice.

But wouldn’t you rather they spent their time processing your job application? Or doing any other kind of real work?  If they wanted a Christmas tree, they were certainly free to set one up at home.

Every year, for our friends in the GOP like Rep. Steineke, the Christmas verses Holiday tree issue provides a perfect opportunity to pander to their base. Here we create another “issue” that sounds simple if you don’t really think about it.  "The governor believes a Christmas tree should be called a Christmas tree," Chris Schrimpf, Scott Walker's communications director, said in an email Tuesday.

But is it that “simple”, or does it only seem so if you believe that everyone should share your particular beliefs. Maybe Scotty and friends are just trying to give their supporters the impression that they are “standing up for them” in Madison. It is certainly easier than doing any real work, like creating more jobs in Wisconsin.

Yes, this is an issue that is not an issue. And the “it’s a tradition” argument has been used too often to support too many practices that should have been forgotten years ago.

Maybe we should just let all the practicing Christians have their Christmas trees at home. Religion is supposed to be an individual preference, isn’t it?

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The Recall of Scott Walker Begins

Posted by Bob Kiefert, Green Bay Progressive
Bob Kiefert, Green Bay Progressive
Bob Kiefert is the Publisher of the Northeast Wisconsin - Green Bay Progressive.
User is currently offline
on Tuesday, 15 November 2011
in Our View

GREEN BAY - Today, the Green Bay/NEWi Progressive joins dozens of grassroots groups across the state in supporting the recall of Scott Walker. We do not begin this undertaking lightly, but Walker has put Wisconsin's way of life in jeopardy with a radical agenda that puts the good of corporations and cronies before the good of the citizens of our state. Massive cuts to education and healthcare have been accompanied by assaults on democratic institutions and the ability of citizens to have their voices heard.

Since Scott Walker would not listen to the people of Wisconsin, and since he has made clear that he will continue to deceive the public and employ scorched-earth tactics that run contrary to our norms and traditions, progressive citizens should now employ the tool of recall to help preserve our state.

The road ahead is long, and Walker's corporate allies will shower our state with millions of dollars in unregulated money to preserve their agenda, but, in the end, no amount of money can keep Scott Walker from accountability, and that begins today.

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Time Has Come to Recall Walker

Posted by Bob Kiefert, Green Bay Progressive
Bob Kiefert, Green Bay Progressive
Bob Kiefert is the Publisher of the Northeast Wisconsin - Green Bay Progressive.
User is currently offline
on Monday, 14 November 2011
in Our View

GREEN BAY - Tomorrow, November 15, 2011, is the day the Recall Scott Walker effort will begin in earnest. Throughout the State, citizen groups, led by the group officially named A United Wisconsin to Recall Scott Walker will begin a statewide recall effort working with established groups like the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and labor-affiliated organizations like We Are Wisconsin.

The Democratic Party of Brown County will start signing petitions in Green Bay at its office, 1061 Mason Street, and its Kick Out-Kick Off Party at Stadium View from 4 to 8 pm. Similar events are planned in Fond du Lac, Madison, and Milwaukee just to name a few.

Immediately after his election a year ago, Scott Walker initiated a radical Tea Party social agenda on Wisconsin to strip workers' rights, slash aid to education, cut Medicare for the poor, allow anyone to carry guns in public, and make it more difficult for citizens to vote. All the while, he worked with his Waukesha County cronies in the state legislature to steer our taxpayer money to friends in big business, calling them “job creators”, while the real job creators, Wisconsin's consumers, lost more of their power to buy.

Scott Walker said little about this radical agenda during his campaign for governor last fall. It was the classic bait and switch. Scott Walker deserves to be recalled for this if nothing else.

His supporters will trot out the usual arguments to muddy the waters, that recalls are a waste of money or that no high crime has been proven. But recall is not impeachment and is, like voting, an expression of citizen democracy at work. Recall can be more like firing a new employee who hasn't worked out in his probationary period. Not to be taken lightly, but available for cases of deception on their job application or lack of the expected performance. All of you have probably seen people let go for less cause at your work.

Scott Walker took advantage of the recall craze hatched in Milwaukee County nine years ago to throw out County Executive F. Thomas Ament and what goes around tends to come around. It is almost poetic justice that now it is his turn.

So get down to your local recall rally tomorrow and be one of the first to sign! The time has come.

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Tell the Koch Brothers to Take their Money and Shove It!

Posted by Bob Kiefert, Green Bay Progressive
Bob Kiefert, Green Bay Progressive
Bob Kiefert is the Publisher of the Northeast Wisconsin - Green Bay Progressive.
User is currently offline
on Saturday, 05 November 2011
in Our View

GREEN BAY – So a few Walker supporters want to to get a jump on fundraising by filing papers so Scotty can raise money from the Koch Brothers before the big recall kickoff on November 15th.

In the Senate recalls last summer, we were treated to a record smashing deluge of big business money trying to beguile the voters into believing that, somehow, cutting education, medical services, and union jobs while giving kickbacks to the super rich is really helping them. One such group, the Wisconsin Club for Growth spent an estimated $3 million to $4 million on “issue” ads for and against candidates in the state’s recall elections.

Not to be blown out again like the first post Citizen’s United Decision election in 2010, Democrats have been raising money hand over foot and fighting back with ads of their own. War is not so much fun when the other guy has a gun too.

But the best way to show the Brothers Koch and other big business money interests that they just can’t swoop in and buy our elections with two weeks of “issue” ads is with our votes. If we turn out, in huge numbers and throw out Scott Walker, we are sending them a clear and simple message that they are wasting their money. In business, that is the only message that really matters.

For those of you who have forgotten, Scott Walker got his big break to win the Milwaukee County Executive seat as the result of a recall drive to unseat then County Executive F. Thomas Ament. It would be poetic justice for his end to come as a result of one as well. If you live by the sword, etc.

The progressive tradition of Wisconsin State Government as well as your very right to vote is being chipped away daily by Walker and his Milwaukee suburban allies in Madison. It is time to throw them out.

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