Protesters around the Capitol had a new talking point after Justice David Prosser took a 7,500 votes lead after the Brookfield election results were reported. Some also had a much angrier tone. One union protester told an independent there's no neutral ground in this debate.
Video.
That's just embarrassing.
So much for a "new tone."
Keep it up Leftists. Your tactics will help conservatives in November 2012.
The Dane County Clerk's Office holds a press conference on Thursday to announce that the vote tally for a city had been omitted from the unofficial total released on Tuesday night.
The corrected tally includes 14,315 votes - 10,859 more votes for JoAnne Kloppenburg and 3,456 more votes for Justice David Prosser. Republicans involved in the canvassing vouch for the integrity of the process and the count.
It would be a dramatic turn of events. No question about it.
"Wisconsin voters as well as the Kloppenburg (campaign) deserve a full explanation of how and why these 14,000 votes from an entire city were missed. To that end, we will be filing open records requests for all relevant documentation related to the reporting of election results in Waukesha County, as well as to the discovery and reporting of the errors announced by the county," Kloppenburg campaign manager Melissa Mulliken said in a statement.
Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) raised the possibility of an independent investigation over the recovery of the votes.
"This is a serious breach of election procedure," he said. "We're going to look further. She waited 24 hours to work this. And she waited until after she verified the results, making it that much more difficult to challenge and verify the results."
But at the news conference with Nickolaus, Ramona Kitzinger, the Democrat on the Waukesha County Board of Canvassers, said: "We went over everything and made sure all the numbers jibed up and they did. Those numbers jibed up, and we're satisfied they're correct."
As a Democrat, she said, "I'm not going to stand here and tell you something that's not true."
Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas, who sat in on Nickolaus' news conference, said voters can be confident in the results because "all the votes are in that office. If anyone wants to look at them and verify, they can."
Kristine Schmidt, the clerk in the city of Brookfield, said in a separate interview that she shared the results with the news media on election night.
She said she also sent the results twice to the county. After the first results were sent she said the county requested a second set of data because they wanted results tabulated in a certain format with fewer columns.
"We sent it to the county and called the county to make sure they got it," Schmidt said.
There should be a record that Brookfield's results were shared with the news media on election night. That should put this notion to rest that votes were "found."
Unfortunately, admitting that would require a sense of honor on the part of Kloppenburg and the Left. That's what's missing. That's what needs to be "found."
The fact that Dan Vrakas is inviting scrutiny should quell outrage on the Left, but it won't. They don't lose well. Tantrums are part of the routine.
Let the lawyers swoop in and examine the ballots. We don't have hanging chads and butterfly ballots here. Investigate. No problem.
However, there's no reason to involve the feds in our state election. I resent Moore's suggestion that the Obama administration should impound the ballots. This is not a national election. It's purely Wisconsin, our Supreme Court.
Then there's Ramona Kitzinger, a Democrat. Is she a liar? Michael Moore and the unhinged Leftists are completely disregarding her comments. She's an inconvenient player in this.
It's to be expected that Moore and company are flipping out. It was inevitable that they would smear Kathy Nickolaus. (I guess they'll have to smear Kitzinger, too.)
I'm sure Kathy Nickolaus is truly sorry. Why would she invite all the criticism and ridicule she's receiving? Does anyone really think she's enjoying this nightmare?
Certainly, it's a personal embarrassment. The poor woman must be a mess.
Given the current political climate and the thuggery exhibited by the unions and their minions, if I were Nickolaus, I'd be fearing for my safety.
What we absolutely must have in Wisconsin is confidence in our elections.
Human error will always be a possibility. Usually, it's not on such a grand scale as in this case, but mistakes happen. Mistakes were made in other counties as well.
What we can do is make it more difficult to commit voter fraud in Wisconsin. We need to have voter photo ID.
I wonder how many fraudulent Kloppenburg votes were cast in this race. Dozens? Hundreds? More?
Let's check every single same-day registration voter. Verify them. Investigate them.
Wisconsin has to stop being a haven for voter fraud.
Then maybe Michael Moore and the union bosses will take their hysterics and thuggery elsewhere.
When Justice David Prosser addressed his supporters shortly after 1:30 AM this morning, he didn't mince words in commenting on the methods utilized by JoAnne Kloppenburg and her proponents during the campaign.
"We're optimistic. We expect later today to bring good results," Prosser told a handful of supporters who had stayed until the wee morning hours at the Seven Seas restaurant in Delafield.
"This is truly an historic election," Prosser said. "There is little doubt there's going to be a recount in this race, no matter who comes out on top -- tomorrow or today or whenever. But I'm very pleased we have sustained the most difficult assault on a person's character in the whole history of the Wisconsin judicial system. We're still in this race, I've weathered the nuclear blast and I'm still standing.
"There is no question about my gratitude to the people of Wisconsin" Prosser said, to applause and shouts of "Ten more years."
Forget all this talk about giant “spending cuts” of $6.2 trillion in Congressman Ryan’s budget plan. That’s music to my ears, but it’s also based on Washington’s bizarre budget math – i.e., the screwy system where politicians can increase spending but say they’re cutting spending because the budget could have grown even faster.
What really matters is how much money government is spending this year compared to how much money will be spent in subsequent years. Using this common-sense benchmark, let’s look at two competing proposals.
According to the new numbers released today, Congressman Ryan’s budget plan will result in government growing, on average, by almost 2.8 percent annually over the next 10 years.
President Obama’s budget plan, by contrast, would increase the burden of government spending by an average of nearly 4.7 percent each year.
This chart compares the two budget plans. Because Chairman Ryan does not let spending grow as rapidly, cumulative spending over that period will be $6.2 billion less than it would be based on the President’s plan. That’s an impressive amount of money that taxpayers will save if Ryan is successful, but it’s not a spending cut.
I'd like those Leftists insisting that Ryan's plan contains "spending cuts" that are harsh and extreme to explain what's so harsh and extreme about a plan that allows the "budget to grow faster than inflation, which is projected to average less than 2.1 percent annually over the 10-year period."
Being responsible should not be labeled "extreme."
Jay Leno continues to bombard his audience with political drivel from Leftists.
The latest Leftist to appear on the Tonight Show was Fareed Zakaria.
Naturally, Zakaria carried water for Obama. He kept yapping about Libya and the "smart diplomacy" of the Obama administration.
Yes, it's been absolutely brilliant.
Right.
As usual, Leno didn't challenge the Leftist Zakaria at all.
Leno really has changed. Since his prime time fiasco, he doesn't hesitate to reveal his personal political leanings.
He rarely books conservatives on the show, so any political discussion is incredibly slanted and annoying. There's no balance. Leno rarely plays devil's advocate. It's a liberal echo chamber.
Here's video, followed by some interview transcript:
FAREED ZAKARIA: I think Obama's weakness is he's a very smart guy but he's very cool, which is good. You're calm, you're collected, but there's almost too much cool. There's an unsentimental...
LENO: Unemotional.
ZAKARIA: Yeah, you think about the problem of Americans who are unemployed. You talk about 20 million, maybe 25 million Americans -- I think if there was some way that he could connect with them. I think they understand he can't wave a magic wand and do something about it, but he needs to in some way give voice to their feeling of hopelessness and frustration. He's not as good at that as he is at the pure analysis.
Oh, good grief.
That's all Zakaria could up with when it comes to Obama's weakness?
Obama's weakness is a lesser strength?
What a hack!
When Leno brought up the 2012 election and the Republican nominee, Zakaria stressed the Tea Party's influence, suggesting extremism. That's right out of the Dems' talking points and Chuck Schumer's big mouth.
ZAKARIA: The party has changed a lot. This is not Ronald Reagan's party. This is not Richard Nixon's party. This is a party animated by the Tea Party, by populism, by all these new forces. And so I think it's much less going to play by the old rules. And so when people look at a Sarah Palin and say, 'Well, she can't get it,' she energizes that base like nobody else does.
Then Leno set up Zakaria to take some shots at Glenn Beck.
LENO: Let me ask you something just to have some fun here. Glenn Beck -- what did he call you? An 'America-basher' and a 'useful idiot.'
ZAKARIA: Yeah, because I corrected his math. He went on a show with his chalkboard and, you know, explained how 10 percent of Muslims are all, are terrorists.
LENO: 9.8. Ten percent!
ZAKARIA: Ten percent, you know. And I just pointed out if you do the math that means there are 157 million terrorists around in the world, and by the State Department's counts there have been only, what, 10,000... you know, 1000 terrorist events. If you assume 100 people involved in planning, it's just the math doesn't make any sense.
So I just think, look, it's the easiest thing to call somebody when you disagree with them an America-basher. I'm an immigrant. I'm not an American by accident of birth as Glenn Beck is. I'm an American by choice. I came to this country.
LENO: (Laughs, applauds)
I can understand why Zakaria would want to respond to Beck's name-calling, and defend himself. That's fair.
However, Zakaria's remarks do serve to diminish those of us blessed to be born in America, as if he has some greater authority because he chose to be an American.
I don't like that argument.
I don't think of myself as "American by accident of birth." I'm just a proud citizen, grateful to be an American. My pride and gratitude are no accident.
Also, Zakaria derides Beck for calling him an "America-basher."
Will Zakaria condemn the protesters in Wisconsin and their comrades around the country for calling Governor Scott Walker Hitler and other hideous names?
Next topic: The Birther controversy.
LENO: You know I like Donald Trump. He's a friend of mine. He's been here. Why... You can't be president if you weren't born here. If it didn't come out before the election, what is this nonsense? Why does this keep going on?
ZAKARIA: Look, I think that some of this -- maybe there are people who feel genuinely worried about this -- I think some of it is being used by politicans as a coded way to talk about race and the fact that he's different from us, whatever that means. I think it's a great shame because first of all, it's unbecoming, it's un-American. Secondly, you know, look at this last census. What does it mean to be different for us? You've got 15 million Hispanic Americans. You've got a country that is increasingly a mixture of minorities. You know, look at us. We all have funny last names. Right? I mean, join the club.
And there's the race card.
I think Trump just wants publicity. He's shrewd. He's knows how to get it. Call Rosie O'Donnell a fat pig and question Obama's birth certificate, whatever it takes to get attention. It's about self-promotion. But that's not the issue. Zakaria is especially offensive when he calls Americans racists and bigots.
This code crap is silly. It's insulting to the majority of Americans who have policy disagreements with Obama and don't approve of the job he's doing as president.
While I'm sure there are some people against Obama because he's half black, most of us against Obama are critical of his policies and values, not his skin color.
This is the 21st century.
Another Leftist hijacks Leno's show. I blame Leno for handing over the controls.
Katherine Windels, 26, charged with sending threatening emails to 16 Republican senators cannot be on the State Capitol grounds.
On Thursday morning Windels made a court appearance where a judge released her on a signature bond. Conditions include she cannot possess a weapon, no computer use except for work, school and looking for work, as well as being on Capitol grounds.
She waived her preliminary hearing. Her next court appearance is May 16.
Windels, of Cross Plains, faces four charges including using a computer to send a threat and creating a bomb scare.
Two of the counts are felonies, two are misdemeanors.
...If convicted on all counts, she could face up to 7.5 years in prison.
Investigators on Friday looked into an additional violent threat by email — this one against Gov. Scott Walker — allegedly sent by the same Cross Plains child care provider already charged with emailing death threats to Republican state senators.
The threat against Walker, emailed Feb. 17, uses language including "watch your back Adolf Walker" and "we will not hesitate to punch where it hurts." It says it's from Katherine Windels.
Journalists discovered it as part of a review of thousands of emails sent to Walker's state account in response to his controversial budget repair bill. The Department of Justice was informed of the email — it apparently had gone unnoticed amid the electronic avalanche — and was investigating to verify its source, said spokesman Bill Cosh.
...News of the charges brought shock Friday to people who know the Windels family.
"You can't find finer people than those two," Pastor Rick Lund of St. Martin's Lutheran Church said of Bill and Karen Windels, Katherine Windels' parents. Her father is a mental-health nurse and her mother is a teacher, he said; both volunteer extensively at the church.
Of their daughter, Lund said: "Katherine is a good-hearted, bright young lady," while acknowledging that she "has had some struggles."
No one answered the door at the family's two-story yellow house at the end of a cul-de-sac in Cross Plains on Friday. Phone calls went unanswered.
Neighbor Kyle Roessler said the family moved into the new subdivision about four or five years ago and that their daughter always lived with her parents. He described the family as "really close," spending a lot of time in their garden in the warmer months and maintaining a cordial, if somewhat distant, relationship with neighbors.
An online profile lists Windels as a 2010 graduate of Madison Area Technical College with an associate's degree in early childhood education who's held multiple jobs as a home-care provider and teacher of young children.
At one of the jobs, Windels worked as a teacher's helper from 2007 to 2009 for an after-school program at St. Martin's called Jesus and Me. She left that job due to health problems that required surgery, said program director Virginia Diebold, but appeared healthy and happy the last time she saw her last Easter.
Notice that the language of the threat e-mailed to Governor Walker, "watch your back Adolf Walker" and "we will not hesitate to punch where it hurts," is typical of the stuff we saw and heard from the protesters in Madison when the Capitol was under siege. ________________
A 26-year-old woman was charged Thursday with two felony counts and two misdemeanor counts for allegedly making email threats against Wisconsin lawmakers during the height of the battle over Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair bill.
Katherine R. Windels of Cross Plains was named in a criminal complaint filed in Dane County Criminal Court.
According to the criminal complaint, Windels allegedly sent an email threat to State Sen. Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay) March 9. Later that evening, she allegedly sent another email to 15 Republican legislators, including Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau).
The subject line of the second email was: "Atten: Death Threat!!!! Bomb!!!" In that email, she purportedly wrote, "Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your families will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks."
"I hope you have a good time in hell," she allegedly wrote in the lengthy email in which she purportedly listed scenarios in which the legislators and their families would die, including bombings and by "putting a nice little bullet in your head."
According to the criminal complaint, Windels told investigators “I sent out emails that I was disgusted and very upset by what they were doing.”
Asked if she intended to follow through on any of her threats, Windels told the investigators "No," according to the complaint.
Windels was charged with two felony counts "bomb scare" and two misdemeanor counts of "computer message-threatening injury/bodily harm." If convicted, each felony count carries a maximum penalty of three years and six months in prison and a $10,000 fine, and each misdemeanor count carries a maximum penalty of 90 days in prison and a $1,000 fine.
This woman is dangerous. She is deranged. She confessed to being a criminal.
She's also incredibly stupid. Did she really think that an e-mail death threat couldn't be traced? Did she really think that she was anonymous?
According to the criminal complaint, Windels sent the threats from a Gmail account, user name "Lisa Patterson" with an e-mail account address of lessylisa@gmail.com.
The IP address from which the aforementioned e-mails were sent belonged to Karen and William Windels, who reside...in the village of Cross Plains, Dane County, Wisconsin.
...[During an interview with police at her home,] Windels confirmed that the email account nickydoodlebug@rocketmail.com belonged to her and Windels stated that she was the only one that used the account.
[Special Agent] Tijerino reports at 5:41 p.m., he received information from [Special Agent] King that the subscriber for email account: lessylisa@gmail.com had a secondary email account: nickydoodlebug@rocketmail.com.
Unbelievably stupid.
Windels had been investigated by police last fall for harassing Lisa Patterson.
A Cross Plains woman charged with felony crimes for allegedly threatening state senators over the budget repair bill was investigated by Madison police officers last fall over text messages.
Police reports released to WKOW27 News show a Madison woman contacted police over concerning text messages from Katherine Windels.
Dane County district attorney Ismael Ozanne Thursday charged Windels for allegedly sending e-mails to all nineteen republican state senators, threatening to kill them over their actions on proposed public employee collective bargaining revisions. A criminal complaint states Windels set up an email address under the name of acquaintance Lisa Patterson and used that address to deliver the email threats.
Madison police reports show Patterson told police on Oct. 14, 2010 she had received text messages from Windels and wanted follow up from officers.
Madison police’s records custodian redacted all reference to the content of the text messages in reports released to WKOW27 News.
In the reports, an officer stated he tried to contact Windels, but was unsuccessful, and ultimately left a voice mail message telling her to cease any contact with Patterson.
The same day the Department of Justice released a letter critical of the prosecution of a woman suspected of sending threatening emails to Republican Senators, the Dane County District Attorney's Office released a criminal complaint, detailing four charges against Katherine Windels of Cross Plains.
Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne really is a partisan hack. It's a disgrace that it took pressure for Ozanne to charge Windels. His failure to act quickly on the matter was a dereliction of duty, a disgrace.
According to the complaint, Windels told the senators "you will be killed and your familes [sic] will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks." She threatened to "put a nice little bullet in your head," and made reference to several bombs.
Investigators visited Windels at her home the next day. According to the complaint, she told them she had sent the emails, and did so because she was very angry about what the senators had done. She also said she didn't intend to carry out the threats, and was not arrested.
Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne filed the charges Thursday. He says "it's odd" law enforcement never took Windels into custody.
"The reality is, the person was not placed into custody, so law enforcement didn't see her as an imminent threat," Ozanne said. "It's not that the case was not taken seriously by law enforcement or by this office."
This morning, the Justice Department sent a letter to the media, saying it was concerned about the "lack of action" on the case by the D.A.'s office. The Justice Department had referred the case to Ozanne two weeks prior.
Ozanne says his office filed charges in an appropriate amount of time.
"The file was reviewed as quickly as possible," he said.
He declined to comment on whether the letter could be the result of mounting tensions between his office, and the Justice Department. The two are pitted against each other in the lawsuit against the Governor's budget repair bill.
Windels is not in custody. The D.A.'s office says she won't be arrested.
The 26-year-old is expected to be served Friday and make her first court appearance in late April.
Windels is a flight risk. I don't know why she's not in custody. We know how opponents of Scott Walker, Republicans, and Wisconsin taxpayers act when they don't get what they want.
They run away. They head for the border. They go to a supposedly undisclosed location and do interviews on MSNBC.
Katherine Windels should not be teaching children. She should never have been a teacher. She's demented and not fit to be entrusted with children. Windels should not serve in the role of educator.
Her career as a teacher should be over.
Katherine Windels' actions are violent and disgusting and inexcusable.
Congratulations, Katherine! You're just 26 years old and you've achieved a lot. Everyone knows your name and your face. You've enlightened us about the sort of person you are. You've admitted to being a criminal.
