In a report that was almost 100 pages, the Bureau sharply criticized the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., created in 2011 by Walker and the state legislature, and called for much more oversight.

From the Associated Press:

The audit faulted WEDC for not having sufficient policies to administer its $520 million worth of grant, loan and tax credit programs effectively, including some policies required by law. It awarded $80 million in its first year.

The agency did not consistently follow the law or existing policies when making awards, and had no policies for determining how to handle delinquent loan amounts, the audit said.

It lacked invoices or other contractually required documentation showing authorized costs for seven of 29 grants reviewed, the audit said. Four contracts gave $906,000 total in tax credits for job creation and employee training that had already occurred, the audit said. Twelve of 14 recipients of grant and loan contracts worth at least $100,000 did not submit verified financial statements as required by law, the audit found.

"This audit dates back to 2011 and largely reflects information that WEDC has known for some time," a Walker spokesman said in a statement. "This new agency has taken proactive and positive measures to address its issues, and Governor Walker is confident in the direction of WEDC as an agency that aims to promote job creation and economic growth for Wisconsin."

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The right had a new champion. Having weakened and nearly destroyed the private sector union movement in America over the last 30 years, it was time to home in on a new target: public sector unions and, in fact, the very idea that a fair society requires a robust public sphere. (Hint: This is true for the non-wealthy, less so for people who can buy their way into private schools, private beaches, private jets and so on.)

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The Anonymous action, carried out in support of public sector unions fighting to save collective bargaining rights against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's union-busting efforts, was not a hack. Rather, the hacker collective orchestrated a denial-of-service attack, or a DDOS,  encouraging users to repeatedly access the website until it's too overwhelmed to function. The Koch sites were successfully but only temporarily brought down. Rosol is the first and only defendant charged in the attack. Via Pearce:

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But just because it will be a boring book doesn't mean that its existence isn't interesting.

Thiessen is a very poor Washington Post opinion columnist who wrote a book in which he strung together a series of distortions in support of the thesis that torture is great. Before the book and the column gig, he was a speechwriter for George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. (Before that, Thiessen spent six years as a spokesperson and "policy adviser" to unreconstructed white supremacist Sen. Jesse Helms, which is another thing that should effectively bar him from participating in civilized society.)

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"People don’t dream about growing up and becoming dependent on the government. Immigrants don’t come here to be dependent on the government," Walker said. "It is precisely why we take a day off to celebrate the 4th of July and not the 15th of April."

In comments that could become controversial, Walker suggested that he doesn't approve of people being dependent on social safety net programs like Social Security and Medicare. Walker said we "need real entitlement reform" in order to move "people from government dependence to true independence."

The sentiment was reminiscent of Paul Ryan's "makers and takers" rhetoric or Mitt Romney's 47 percent comments.

He added that the reason he didn't go along with the Medicaid expansion in the Affordable Care Act that would give health coverage to over 200,000 Wisconsinites is because he didn't want to increase dependence.

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That's what my inbox has been telling me ever since my story two weeks ago about the inevitable invasion of MOOCs (massive open online courses) into higher education, "The Internet Will Not Ruin College." The negativity wasn't unanimous, but it was definitely illuminating.

Information is not the same as knowledge! Online education might work for remedial algebra or the basics of computer programming, conceded several professors, but when the goal is to teach students to think and write critically about history or literature, the benefits of teaching thousands of students simultaneously via their iPads becomes much hazier. University administrators pushing MOOCs, they argued, are more interested in cutting costs or finding new sources of revenue than in delivering the best education possible. Most students who do register for MOOCs never finish them, they warned, and the available data suggests the kinds of students who need the most educational assistance tend to be the ones who benefit the least from online classes.

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But now as Republican governors stake out a new array of conservative goals in the dozens of state legislatures the party controls, Walker has decided to lay low in Wisconsin. Instead of taking what many see as the next steps on a likely to-do list, such as making Wisconsin a right-to-work state or pushing tougher immigration laws, Walker is preaching moderation and calm. He has also backed away from proposals like eliminating the state's same-day voter registration.

"We're not going to do things that are going to bring 80,000 or 100,000 people into the Capitol," Walker told the Wisconsin State Journal shortly before the legislative session began. "It's just not going to happen again."

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NFL owners locked out union referees, using replacements during an ongoing labor dispute. The league had claimed the replacements were performing adequately, until last night when a referee made what one YouTube user dubbed "the worst call ever," handing a win to the Seattle Seahawks over Green Bay.

Gov. Walker took to Twitter to express his displeasure, hashtagging "ReturnTheRealRefs" (i.e., the locked out union refs):

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Other Twitter users were quick to respond:

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Warren rebounds: Two new polls show Democrat Elizabeth Warren leading in the Massachusetts Senate race after months of being stuck behind Republican Sen. Scott Brown. A new PPP survey out last night finds Warren up 2 percent, 48-46, which represents a 7-point turnaround in the past month. And a Western New England University Polling Institute survey shows Warren with an even bigger 6-point lead, with the race at 50-44. The first poll shows that almost all of the gains come from Democrats coming back into the fold who had previously been OK with voting for moderate Brown.

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Perhaps the most dramatic shift in the platform’s language is on “Right to Work,” legislation that makes it illegal for unions and companies to sign contracts requiring that everyone represented by a union help pay the costs of negotiating and enforcing contracts. Twenty-three states have passed such laws, effectively making it harder for unions to maintain and grow their strength, and easier for companies to pick on union supporters, or suspend union recognition entirely.

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I have a name for it, and an explanation. Call it lazy mendacity.

First, some examples are in order. Perhaps the most famous one is the Republican insistence that Barack Obama rejected the idea of “American exceptionalism” in a press conference – an interpretation that depended on yanking a quotation out of context. Bad enough to do it, but years later it’s not at all unusual to come across examples of Republicans still trotting out this one.

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Some are even dropping the R word: “Since Ronald Reagan left the national stage, many have auditioned for the role of leader of the conservative movement, but no one filled the Gipper’s shoes until Scott Walker came on the scene,” Richard Viguerie of ConservativeHQ.com cooed.

In the 36 hours since his win, he’s been put up for a plum speaking spot at the Republican National Convention, earned the praise of Mitt Romney, seen other Republican governors race to tie themselves to him, and received calls for higher office. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, himself from Wisconsin, said, “Scott Walker is in the category of bright, shining stars with big ideas in this country."

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In the Bible Belt, Republicans have long been able to divide working people (by that I mean anyone who depends on an earned paycheck to stay afloat) on social issues — gay rights and abortion. In the Rust Belt and Grain Belt, that’s been a bit harder, as there is a strong “live and let live” ethic in the Midwest. We like our neighbors and tend to accept, if not value, our differences. We also like our pulpits free of politics; we prefer preachers to be soft-spoken and potlucks are often more important than politics. The overwhelming support for President Obama in Wisconsin in 2008 (he won some very conservative rural counties) proved all that.

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While talking to a prankster who pretended he was billionaire GOP funder David Koch more than a year ago, Walker confided what he did at a dinner for his staff the night before he unveiled his union-busting agenda. "I pulled out a picture of Ronald Reagan and I said 'You know, this may seem a little melodramatic, but 30 years ago Ronald Reagan, whose 100th birthday we just celebrated the day before, had one of the most defining moments of his political career, not just his presidency, when he fired the air traffic controllers,'" Walker told the faux-Koch.

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I started a little bit of teeth-gnashing this morning, when I saw the new Barack Obama.com video on YouTube urging Wisconsin to back Barrett – posted mid-morning on Election Day. The message with it read: "Wisconsin needs you. Sign up for a shift, knock doors, and make phone calls. Talk to your friends and elect Tom Barrett. It's time we make those last crucial conversations to get out the vote today." Urging people to "sign up for a shift" might have been a little more helpful a few days ago, don't you think? The video followed a tweet from the president Monday night: "It’s Election Day in Wisconsin tomorrow, and I’m standing by Tom Barrett. He’d make an outstanding governor. –bo"

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In the final debate last night, challenger Tom Barrett repeatedly slammed Walker for his legal woes and for stonewalling the public. "I have a police department that arrests felons," the Democratic Milwaukee mayor said, "he has a practice of hiring them." He added, “I’ve been in public life for 28 years. No one on my staff has been charged with a felony, and I've never had a criminal defense fund.”

So what is the “John Doe” investigation?

The term does not apply to a single anonymous person, in this case, but rather it refers to a secret evidence-gathering investigation, much like a grand jury. The investigation has been led by a DA and judge in Milwaukee, who has the authority to compel testimony, issue warrants and carry other law enforcement actions.

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The campaign has also organized a press conference with Massachusetts lawmakers that will take place on the steps of the statehouse in Boston later today. Obama political svengali David Axelrod will be on hand.

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Despite the election’s high visibility, national Democrats had not invested heavily in the race, reportedly upsetting some local Democrats and labor activists who felt hung out to dry after building a movement to gather nearly a million signatures to oust Walker. And while Republicans have poured money and star power into the state, national Dems have gotten a slower start, thanks in part to a Democratic primary that divided labor and party support between two candidates.

But now, the Democratic Governors Association just dropped another $1 million in the race -- bringing its total investment to $3 million, more than it's ever spent in a Wisconsin general -- and the DNC is getting directly involved, after sitting on the sidelines.

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In a new video, the speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly says his caucus wanted to pass a right-to-work bill last year. The video, shot on March 27 of this year by a Democratic Party tracker, who provided the footage to Salon, captures Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald talking at a bar with a reporter from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

The reporter asks Fitzgerald whether he was surprised when Walker described his plans to attack public workers’ collective bargaining. “No, it wasn’t a shock to me …” responds Fitzgerald. “My caucus wanted to go further. I had people in my caucus that was, you know, were wondering if we were going to do Right to Work in this state. So to tell you the truth, the collective bargaining, to me, I thought was more of a middle ground if you can believe that.”

Fitzgerald says “a number of people thought” they would push right-to-work, just as Republicans were in Indiana (where it passed this winter) and Minnesota (where it stalled). “When I heard about the collective bargaining,” he says, “it didn’t surprise me at all.” (Fitzgerald did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

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