To fully tell this story, you have to go back to the beginning of the protest rallies in Madison, Wisconsin.
On February 17th, Governor Walker told the press that his office had received “over 8,000 emails” which he said were mostly supportive of his efforts to smash the unions.
“The more than 8,000 emails we got today, the majority are telling us to stay firm, to stay strong, to stand with the taxpayers,” Walker said of the emails. “While the protesters have every right to be heard, I’m going to make sure the taxpayers of the state are heard and their voices are not drowned out by those circling the Capitol.”
The very next day, he said the number was 19,000 and, still, with the “majority in favor” of his actions. Apparently they received 11,000 emails over night. Go figure.
Well, the Associated Press decided to check the veracity of that claim and filed a Freedom of Information Act request to have a look at the emails. Turns out, and I know this going to shock you so prepare yourself, Scott Walker was lying like a rug.
On Feb. 11, the day Walker formally outlined his “budget-repair bill” and his proposal to dramatically curb union rights, the emails sent to his office ran more than 5-to-1 against his plan. Much of that opposition came from public workers directly affected by the proposal, many of whom responded to an email sent by Walker that offered a rationale for his proposal.The gap closed over the next five days, as protesters arrived in large numbers at the Capitol and the Republican-controlled Legislature set a course to pass the bill in less than a week.
By the end of Feb. 16 — the eve of a vote in the state Senate and a day in which Madison’s schools were forced to close due to high number of teacher and staff absences, presumably to protest at the Capitol — Walker had received more than 12,000 emails in all, and they ran roughly 2-to-1 against the bill.
Not exactly “the majority”, there, Governor. But this is not the end of the story, not by a long shot.
Turns out that this flood of emails also turned up another interesting tidbit. One of the emails, received on February 19th, was from Carlos Lam, a deputy prosecutor from Johnson County, Indiana. In this email to Governor Walker, filed in a file called “FOR” (i.e., in support of the Governor’s union busting actions), Lam suggested something pretty outrageous:
Dear Governor Walker:
This Hoosier public employee is asking that you stay strong and NOT to cave to the union demands! The that government works has to change, and — by all appearances — that must begin with WI. We cannot have the public unions hold the taxpayer hostage with their outrageous demands.As an aside, I’ve been involved in GOP politics here in Indiana for 18 years, and I think that the situation in WI presents a good opportunity for what’s called a “false flag” operation. If you could employ an associate who pretends to be sympathetic to the unions’ cause to physically attack you (or even use a firearm against you), you could discredit the union protest as a democratic uprising and failing to mention the role of the DNC and umbrella union organizations in the protest. Employing a false flag operation would assist in undercutting any support that the media may be creating in favor of the unions.
God bless,
Carlos F. Lam
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Unsurprisingly, Lam immediately denied sending the email claiming that his email account was hacked and that he was out shopping for a minivan with his wife.
From the Wisconsin Watch article:
Lam…said he was particularly concerned since “the person who wrote this seems to know a lot about me” and his account “had been hacked in the past.” On the advice of [his boss, Prosecuter Brad] Cooper, he took down his Facebook page, changed his cell phone number, email passwords, “library, medical, bank, student loan, and a whole host of records,” and was afraid for his and his family’s safety.He said he had made some political enemies, particularly in primary fights he helped on, and also said he often left his email account open at his home.
Of course, the only response and the universal response to this denial was, “Sure. Your email got hacked. Yeah, right.” This would be then followed by a very dramatic rolling of the eyes. And your skepticism would not only be natural, it would be 100%, spot-on correct.
Yesterday, Lam resigned.
Lam said he was minivan-shopping with his family when the email was sent.Lam’s admission that he sent the email appears in a statement released today by Johnson County Prosecutor Bradley Cooper.
“Over the weekend, on his own time and on his own personal computer, one of my deputy prosecutors sent an email to Gov. Walker of Wisconsin that contained a foolish suggestion,” Cooper wrote. “He originally denied sending the email, claiming that his Hotmail account had been hacked into.
“Early this morning, the deputy contacted me from his home, admitted to me that he did send the email to Gov. Walker and tendered his resignation, which I have accepted.”
Just to finish this story of lies, deception and clear admission that the GOP can’t win without gross cheating and game-rigging, let’s not forget that Governor Walker himself has admitted that his staff considered planting rabblerousers in the crowd of protesters as a way to make them look bad to the public. And there was also the odd case of live ammunition being found around the Capitol building.
Also, too, in his email, Lam makes the point that he’s been “involved in GOP politics here in Indiana for 18 years” and then goes on to say maybe it’s time to pull a “false flag” operation. Doesn’t that suggest that he has past history doing this? If I were a reporter in Indiana, I would be digging through Lam’s history with a fine-toothed comb to see if I could uncover evidence of him or people he is associated with pulling shit like this. He’s all but admitted that he has done it in the past.
Disgusting.
I’m just sayin’…
