Authorities were called to the ball at Monona Terrace around 10:30 p.m. Monday, and arrested Robert J. Westman, 45, of Madison, on tentative charges of battery and fourth-degree sexual assault, police spokesman Joel DeSpain said.

A 44-year-old Onalaska woman told police Westman had been bothering her — touching and trying to kiss her even though she repeatedly asked him to leave her alone, police said.

The woman sought help dealing with Westman from a 55-year-old Onalaska man, who confronted Westman and told him to stop, DeSpain said. About 20 minutes later, the man told police, he saw Westman bothering the woman again and went up to him once more, telling Westman he was going to call security, DeSpain said.

Westman “responded by head-butting the second man in the face,” DeSpain said.

MADISON, Wis. — Republicans who control the state Assembly are considering formal rules to limit debate, sparking cries from minority Democrats that the GOP wants to silence them.

The Assembly is expected to consider the rules during the session's first floor period Wednesday. The package calls for giving each party at least 30 minutes to debate final passage of any proposal unless leaders from both sides agree to something different. It also creates a new way for ending debate if time limits expire by allowing a representative to move for tabling all amendments at once and limiting debate on referring bills back to committee to 10 minutes.

Floor periods in the 99-member Assembly have dragged into the wee hours for years as the minority party tries to draw the proceedings out and exhaust majority members. Debate over the state budget, for example, often includes scores of amendments from the minority party, giving them a chance to talk for hours and stave off a vote as long as possible. In 2011, Democrats filibustered for more than 60 hours to delay a vote on Republican Gov. Scott Walker's proposal stripping public workers of their union rights.

Last session, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, agreed to set time limits for each bill before taking the floor. The deal called for setting aside at least a half-hour for debate on a bill's final passage. Debate on the 2013-15 budget was slated to last 12½ hours over two days in the Assembly, but Democrats surprisingly chose not to prolong the proceedings and let Republicans pass the spending plan after little more than an hour of debate.

’’ …we had come to the stage where for our people what was needed was a real democracy; and of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of a plutocracy.’’

~ Teddy Roosevelt, from his Autiobiography

A "pro"second amendment website - called - wearagun- has started selling some T-shirts to gun enthusiasts across the country and a few really stood out.

Like this one:



I am sure Jared Loughner is mad he didnt grab one of those when he had the chance.

Then this is also another winner:

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty(WILL), run by fellow Purple WIsconsin blogger Rick Esenberg, recently released a report which unsurprisingly tells us that charter/voucher schools in WI have it rough and are over regulated.

That the law branch of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation would come up with such findings surprises no one. WILL is an extremely well funded "non profit" and they have the Bradly Foundation to thank. It is always good to keep your donors happy, so advancing the agenda of the public school profiteers, is to be expected.

Let's take a look at who WILL is. This "study" was put together by three people, Rick Esenberg, CJ Szafir and Martin Lueken. A quick check of credentials and we see that neither Mr. Esenberg, Mr. Szafir nor Mr. Lueken have spent a day working in a public school, nor are they certified or eligible to teach in a public school. Martin Lueken was a recent hire to the team, courtesy of the private school pushing Walton family.

In New Wisconsin, working on a Republican campaign is all of the credentials you need to be an expert on any topic. Not a single education credential went into this report, and future reports to come from WILL, on voucher/private schools.

19.) In June, Johnson intense criticism for being one of only three senators to vote against the bill to fix long wait times for war-injured veterans seeking health care.

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9.) Johnson also weighed in on the "skills gap" that most politicians are working to solve. He said that the real problem was a "willingness to work gap." Ouch.

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4) Over the summer, Johnson claimed that outsourcing is "quite beneficial to America." Yeah, especially Wisconsin-- where we've lost hundreds of thousands of jobs to outsourcing!

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2.) Johnson often says that the reason he got into politics was because his daughter's life was saved by the exceptional skills of heart surgeon, Dr. John Foker, and that if Obamacare had been around when his daughter needed Foker's help she would have died because Obamacare would have scared gifted surgeons like Foker from going into medicine. In the beginning of this year, however, it was revealed that Foker was and is an enthusiastic supporter of Obamacare, putting a giant fly in ointment of Johnson's central talking point.

A more subtle approach is taken by the stealthily conservative Wisconsin Election Watch. Progressive web sites including UppityWis (check out the blog roll to the right of this posting) sometimes hype apparently straight news stories from this reasonably professional-looking site. In reviewing Wisconsin Election Watch's actual work, however, one is hard-pressed to ignore that it's pretty much a mouthpiece for conservative interests. Here is how it describes itself:

Wisconsin Election Watch is an online, non-partisan, for-profit election news and information resource formed in 2013 that is dedicated to in-depth reporting and research about Wisconsin government and elections. Wisconsin Election Watch is focused on news and information about elections at all levels of government, elected officials, candidates, and issue referendums. Our goal is to produce detailed reporting that is focused on improving transparency at all levels of Wisconsin government and elections.

Well, the "dedicated," "non-partisan" and "in-depth" aspects definitely need some work. Wisconsin Election Watch's editor and project manager is Kyle Maichle, whom the site describes thusly:

Kyle brings considerable political, research, and writing experience. After serving as an intern and College Programs Coordinator for AFP-Wisconsin [that's Americans For Prosperity, a Koch-funded group], he first started his professional career with the Lucy Burns Institute in 2008 working as a Content Editor for Judgepedia and Ballotpedia. In the same year, Kyle was transferred to the Chicago-based Sam Adams Alliance working as the full-time writer for Judgepedia. While with Sam Adams, he wrote content centered towards federal judges and covered the 2009 Wisconsin State Supreme Court election. In July 2009, Kyle was transferred back to the Lucy Burns Institute becoming their Technical Researcher and Writer for Ballotpedia. During his second tenure with the Lucy Burns Institute, he assisted Ballotpedia’s reporting team in producing content regarding local and statewide elections along with writing on state legislatures and issues not covered by traditional media. In 2011, Kyle became a full-time consultant for various campaigns and organizations for over two years.

The organizations described in the above passage are well interconnected and hold a number of conservative ties. For instance, the Lucy Burns Institute is an outfit run by the wife of Eric O'Keefe, who is an almost ubiquitous right-wing political operative. Sourcewatch.com has noted that O'Keefe has extensive ties to the Koch brothers. O'Keefe is director of the Wisconsin Club for Growth and is also instrumental in that Chicago-based Sam Adams Alliance, which contributed to the founding of numerous tea party organizations, and also helped launch the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity.