Why are Walker and the Kochs listed separately on Time’s most influential list?

… I mean, if Jim Henson were named one of the magazine’s top 100 most influential people, you wouldn’t list Fozzie Bear in a completely different section, would you? (Okay, I realize Jim Henson is dead, but what am I going to say? Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy? Also dead, and tragically unknown to Gen X, Gen Y, millennials — basically anyone who’s still in danger of being sexually harassed by Bill O’Reilly. The point is, when Scott Walker speaks, you can see two old men’s lips moving. And it’s not Statler and Waldorf.)

Anyway, Gov. Scott Walker hit the big time last week, joining David and Charles Koch, Miley Cyrus, and Kim Jong Un on Time’s 2014 list of the world’s 100 Most Influential People.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie did the write-up on our esteemed governor, and Walker is pictured with his arms crossed and leaning against a Harley-Davidson hog, possibly because he plans on visiting his fellow governor in Jersey and knows it’s easier to get past impromptu bridge blockades on a motorcycle.

In the piece, Christie notes that Walker’s policies have brought economic growth to Wisconsin. I beg to differ. There may be growth in our state, but it’s not because of Walker. As I noted in last week’s blog post, the state’s economy is growing in spite of Walker, not because of him. We’re seeing job growth across the United States, but Wisconsin continues to lag. One possible reason? Walker’s policies, which took money out of public workers’ pockets and siphoned it upward — and which prevented us from returning a fair share of our own federal tax money to our economy in the form of high-speed rail and Medicaid dollars.

So where’s the pithy paean to liberal Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, whose state is beating our brains in when it comes to economic growth? Oh, you haven’t heard of him? That may be because he hasn’t spent the past three years auditioning for Dancing With the Stars.

Meanwhile, Time solicited that paragon of probity Karl Rove to write Charles and David’s Koch’s profile.

Rove, a professional spin doctor and the minister of propaganda during the Bush II regime, started his piece with this: “David and Charles Koch are patriots. By grit, persistence and hard work, they built a $100 billion-a-year business that employs tens of thousands.”

I’ll let that stand without comment, if you’ll allow me to submit exhibits A and B from Rove’s Machiavellian, non-reality-based professional career. First off, here’s his famous meltdown on Fox News during Election Night 2014, when he launched into his best Monty Python Black Knight impression:

And just for fun — this:

“Just get me a f****** faith-based thing. Got it?”

Fox says, ‘Let’s steal natural resources!’

Okay, so Fox News’ Sean Hannity basically married Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy after a whirlwind Vegas romance, and now he’s trying to back out of it.

After Bundy suggested in a New York Times interview that African-Americans may have been better off as slaves, Hannity, who had been Bundy’s most ardent supporter, called Bundy’s comments “despicable” and “repugnant.” So I guess that bromance is over.

But what I don’t get is this: Where were conservatives like Hannity when Native Americans pressed their legal right, under treaty, to harvest walleye in northern Wisconsin?

If it’s every red-blooded American’s right to steal natural resources from every other American without the threat of harassment from the government, why weren’t Bundy’s protectors equally concerned about Native Americans’ right to legally spear fish without being harassed by — well, let’s face it — some of the very same people who are now siding with Bundy?

(Continued)

Bundy hasn’t paid grazing fees for more than 20 years. According to this Salon.com piece by conservationists Travis Bruner and Greta Anderson, the pittance ranchers pay in fees isn’t even enough to cover the management of the public lands that they use, and taxpayers subsidize the grazing program to the tune of $123 million. (Cliven Bundy, get off the government’s back!)

But some conservatives think stealing natural resources is just fine, as long as you can muster a militia and use it to boost Fox News’ ratings. But if you happen not to be white and are simply exercising your treaty rights, this happens.

The only conclusion I can draw from this tortured double standard is that a small, vocal minority of white people own everything, whether it belongs to them or not.

Brett Hulsey for governor?

Okay, so I buried the lead. My initial thoughts after I heard state Rep. Brett Hulsey (D-Brett Hulsey’s Own Personal Universe) was running for governor?

“You mean Bret Michaels, right?”

“You what now?”

“Oh, for the love of God, no.”

All I can say is this: Young people will flip for him, but I don’t think he’ll be able to upend Mary Burke or Gov. Walker. 

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