MADISON – Today, Former Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager (D-Fond du Lac), Representatives Chris Taylor (D-Madison) and Katrina Shankland (D-Stevens Point) held a press conference highlighting Republican Attorney General candidate Brad Schimel’s troubling positions on issues important to women and families.

Schimel is endorsed by Wisconsin Right to Life (WRTL), a group that has worked for decades to outlaw abortion in almost all circumstances, and make access to birth control more difficult. He also received the highest recommendation from Wisconsin Family Action, a group that has joined WRTL in their opposition to reproductive health care for women and lead the charge to amend the Wisconsin constitution to ban gay marriage, no longer in effect because of recent court decisions.

“Make no mistake about it, Brad Schimel as Attorney General would be extremely harmful for Wisconsin women and families,” said Taylor. “He not only opposes abortion, but believes that employers should be able to deny birth control to their female employees. Every woman and their loved ones should be concerned about Schimel’s extreme positions.”

In response to a Family Action survey, Schimel indicated that he “strong believed” that “human life begins at conception and deserves legal protection at every stage. . .” (See ivoterguide.com). He also heralded the recent Hobby Lobby decision, which allows employers to refuse to provide birth control insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

"Young women expect and deserve economic security - that starts with our ability to plan our families," stated Representative Shankland. "Access to birth control is paramount to determine our own futures. That's why Brad Schimel's positions on issues critical to women are so out of step with our lives."

The Attorney General takes an oath to uphold the state and federal constitutions and has the discretion about enforcing unconstitutional laws. Schimel has indicated that he will enforce all laws, regardless of whether provisions violate constitutional rights. Schimel even indicated during an earlier interview that he would have enforced inter-racial marriage bans. He has stated that it is just “representative democracy” to have big campaign donors influence policy.

“The Attorney General has an obligation to uphold the constitution and protect people’s rights,” said former Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager. “Sometimes that means standing up to your own political party when they pass laws that overreach and trample on individual rights, including women’s rights to make the most personal and private decisions about their lives without government intrusion. Brad Schimel clearly is not up to fulfilling this important task.”

Madison — The attorney for a former aide to Gov. Scott Walker received a reprimand last year for violating professional conduct rules by removing files from the aide's computer that he knew were relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation.

Attorney Chris Wiesmueller avoided criminal charges under a deal with Waukesha County District Attorney Brad Schimel by agreeing to bring the matter to the attention of the state Office of Lawyer Regulation.

Schimel, a Republican, is now running for attorney general.

Regulators also found Wiesmueller violated rules by trying to negotiate a deal for his client without consulting with her; telling criminal investigators about his client's activities without her knowledge; and implying his client had removed material from her computer when it was Wiesmueller who did that.

“It’s my sodding career, liberating -- all right?” “HOW I WON THE WAR”

The same year Lennon co-made “Magical” he reunited with “A Hard Day’s Night” and 1965’s “Help!” helmer Richard Lester to co-star in 1967’s “How I Won the War.” The almost 109 minute-feature was scripted by Charles Wood, who also wrote 1968’s antiwar “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” “How I won the War” is significant in that it reveals Lennon’s growing political awareness and movement towards a pacifist stance. Set during World War II, Lennon and Lester mock militarism and show the futility of combat. Towards the end, when Lennon’s character Gripweed is grievously wounded, he questions war. One of the soldiers muses that after WWII he’ll move on to Vietnam. (See: .)

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Hamburg Days: “BACKBEAT”

Ian Hart reprised his role as Lennon in this biopic that takes place before John’s Barcelona trip with Epstein. 1994’s “Backbeat” finds the pre-Ringo Beatles performing in Hamburg 1960-1962, and the future pacifist Lennon is not so very “peacey lovey” in this early look at the Liverpool Lads. In fact, if not downright unlikable here, John’s a hard edged brawler as he fights to reach “the toppermost of the poppermost!” The biopic suggests that Lennon actually may have killed somebody during a fight. Nevertheless, with its depictions of the so-called “Fifth Beatle” Stu Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff), Stu’s German lover Astrid Kerchherr (Sheryl Lee) and drummer Pete Best (Scot Williams) -- all important figures in Fab Four lore -- most Beatle-maniacs will probably dig this pic shot on location in the U.K. and Germany. Especially since “Backbeat” has a great soundtrack, with songs such as “Twist n Shout”; it won a BAFTA Award (the U.K. equivalent of the Oscar) for Film Music and was nominated for Best British Film. (See: .)

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Working Class Hero: “THE U.S. VS. JOHN LENNON”

This superb 2006 documentary revealing the Nixon regime’s not-so-secret war against Lennon is must see viewing -- and helps explain why Tricky Dick beat George McGovern in the landslide election of 1972. As the post-Beatles Lennon sought to relocate to New York, he agreed to join forces with other top pop musicians and antiwar activists to embark on a rock tour that would have rocked America. The plan was brilliantly simple: Lennon and company would perform at concerts across the USA to rally youth and register voters to defeat Nixon and Agnew in the presidential election. Fearful that Lennon’s star power would help topple the Nixon Administration, the dogs of war were sicced on John and Yoko, who were subjected to intense harassment by the FBI and INS. An old U.K. drug charge was used against Lennon, forcing him to divert his attention from the campaign trail to an epic court fight for legal immigration status, which derailed the planned antiwar concert tour. Throughout the ordeal Our Man John kept his sense of humor: After eventually winning, when Nixon, John Mitchell, and others implicated in the Watergate scandal fell from grace, Lennon wittily told a reporter this only proved “time wounds all heels.” Noam Chomsky, Angela Davis, Carl Bernstein, Tariq Ali, Gore Vidal, etc., appear in the doc. From a political point of view this is the best Lennon documentary. (See: www.imdb.com/title/tt0478049/.)

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All We Are Saying is: “GIVE PEACE A CHANCE”

Danny “News Dissector” Schechter’s nonfiction film, made with the cooperation of Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon (who appear in it), was an effort to stop Bush’s invasion of Iraq -- that is, Pres. George H.W. Bush’s war back in 1991, when this documentary was made. It features various musicians including Little Richard and Lenny Kravitz, in cameos singing versions of “Give Peace a Chance”, which John composed in 1969 and became the anthem for the anti-Vietnam War movement. Schechter’s hour-long film is little seen because it came out while the media was beating the drums for the Gulf War and posed a counter-narrative to the jingoistic war hysteria. As a Variety headline put it the doc was “Selling Peace At a Time of War.” Ron Kovic, who was depicted by Tom Cruise in Oliver Stone’s 1989 antiwar movie “Born on the Fourth of July”, appears in the film that used Lennon’s lyrical legacy to once again stand up to what Dylan called “The Masters of War.”

Alaskans got a check for $1884 last week. Sarah Palin said she'll use hers to fight big government programs that send checks to lazy people.

Supreme Court decisions on gay marriage don't apply to South Carolina, who won the right to nullify federal law in the Civil War.

The 2014 Nobel Prize in Climate Science Denial goes to Marco Rubio for popularizing the “I’m not a scientist, but...” meme.

Former CEO and GOP Senate candidate David Perdue plans to solve our immigration problem by outsourcing border security to Mexico.

“NoVouchers” group forms to stop expansion of taxpayer-funded vouchers for private schools in ruralNorthern Wisconsin

On Monday a grassroots coalition calling itself “NoVouchers” announced its volunteer members will be working to stop the expansion of taxpayer-funded vouchers for private schools in rural communities in Northern Wisconsin.

“Our group calculated that the cost of funding vouchers for private school students just in Merrill, Wausau, Green Bay and Eau Claire could cost taxpayers – at minimum — an additional $25.8 million every year”, said group founder Pam Kobielus, adding that the annual cost of vouchers statewide has been estimated at $1.2 billion for the 2014-2015 school year.

According to information provided by NoVouchers, for the period from 2001-2014 private school enrollment in Green Bay actually fell 44.9% while public school enrollment rose 3.1%. Since taking office Gov. Scott Walker has slashed funding for public education, leaving school districts like Green Bay to serve a larger population with a smaller amount of funding. As the graph below demonstrates, private school enrollment has actually decreased in Wausau, Merrill, Green Bay, and Eau Claire, and siphoning more money out of the public school system in order to divert it to vouchers for private schools will have a tremendously negative impact on those school districts.

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On top of this, Gov. Walker now wants to give private schools $6,500 of your taxpayer money for each student applicant – every year. Remember, the annual cost of vouchers statewide has been estimated at $1.2 billion for 2014-2015. Think about that. That’s $1.2 billion more each and every year to support a second school system that is not accountable to taxpayers!

WI Attorney General Candidate Brad Schimel's No Good, Completely Rotten, Couldn't Get Worse Week Just Did

Brad Schimel, Republican candidate for WI Attorney General, has more skeletons than a Halloween haunted house.

Earlier this week, we reported about Brad Schimel, the Republican candidate for Wisconsin State Attorney General, who was having a very bad, no good, couldn't get any worse week.. It turned out that Schimel had ties to the John Doe investigation into the corruption of Scott Walker and his staff. Schimel allowed a fellow Republican, Christopher Weismueller, to get off with a slap on the wrist for knowingly destroying evidence and lying to prosecutors.

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Then again, it shouldn't be all that surprising since this is the same person who said that he had no qualms about the pay for play style of government that Scott Walker and is fellow Dark Money Republicans favor, calling it the "essence of representative government."

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Another skeleton fell out of Schimel's closet when it was revealed that a Wisconsin advocacy group, One Wisconsin Now, filed a complaint with the Government Accountability Board against Schimel, stating that Schimel illegally used campaign funds for personal use.

A review of Schimel’s campaign finance reports by One Wisconsin Now found that between 2008 and 2012 on at least sixteen occasions he used campaign funds to directly pay babysitters, including family members.

Brad Schimel would have defended ban on interracial marriage as AG

Waukesha County District Attorney Brad Schimel said he would have reluctantly defended a ban on interracial marriage had he been attorney general in the 1950s — a stance Democrats criticized Wednesday.
Schimel, a Republican, is running for attorney general in the Nov. 4 election against Jefferson County District Attorney Susan Happ, a Democrat.

For months, Schimel has said he would have defended the state’s ban on gay marriage in court because the attorney general is obligated to uphold state laws and provisions in the state constitution.

As he discussed his stance on that issue last month on an Oshkosh cable access program, he was asked if it would have been his obligation to defend a ban on interracial marriage if he had been an attorney general in a state with such a law 60 years ago.

He sighed and said, “Yeah, it is.”