Scott Walker, the Koch brothers' Governor of Wisconsin,believes that too many recalls makes it too hard to get anything done. Watch this space for a change in Wisconsin's recall laws. Walker should have told his party not to have hired out of state petitioners to come in and offer five shots of booze per signature for recall petitions against Democrats. One of these out-of-staters was a felon and got arrested at Packers' Stadium for trying to steal a purse. Meanwhile, Russ Feingold has tied Walker in a recall poll. It looks very possible that Walker could face recall given the turnout in the recalls of the Republicans.
The Right Reverend Terry Jones, he of burning the Koran fame,plans to sue Michigan officials because he had to post a $1 peace bond. He's up in Dearborn, Michigan to protest that city being under sharia law. Naturally, it isn't but he's protesting anyway. He's the guy who uses slave labor to make products in his church in Florida. Maybe Governor Snyder should just seize Dearborn under the Financial Emergency Act before it is ruled under sharia law.
The IMF says the age of America is over and that the Chinese economy will surpass ours by 2016, many decades earlier than previously thought. The one consolation is that it is the IMF saying this.
The GOP in the House is now going after SNAP,which is what Food Stamp assistance is called these days. Over 40 million Americans--mostly white people--are on food stamps.
Fairbanks, Alaska is about to vote to stop treating drinking water with flouride because of their bircher contingent.
The Supreme Court slapped down Virginia's Attorney-General, the "Cooch", by refusing to expedite a ruling on the Affordable Health Care Act. The important thing to note is that Elena Kagan participated, despite rumors that she would recuse herself.
The D.C. law firm of King and Spaulding withdrew from the DOMA case because they feared defending a case of discrimination when they have an excellent record on gays issues. Paul Clement will take the $500,000 contract from John Boehner and argue it himself.
Fox News is revving up the engines on President Obama's war against Easter. It seems he did not issue a White House Proclamation celebrating Easter. Of course, neither did George W in his eight years in office. It seems the Easter Breakfast Prayer Meeting, the White House Easter Egg Hunt and the first family attending Easter services at Shiloh Baptist Church don't count. I guess you have to treat it like Obama does," The Resurrection puts things in perspective."
I'm as happy as anyone about the recovery of Gaby Giffords and her desire to attend the Space Shuttle Launch of her husband. But the piece in the Arizona Republic should remind everyone how hard and long her route to recovery really is. The whole assassination attempt was ghastly and it's understandable that people should be cheerleaders to every step she makes to recovery. But the details of this are heartbreaking.
Some leftwing blogger posted a shrewd comment about all the Midwestern governors. He wrote that they were following the Republican embrace of the unitary theory of the executive, which almost makes Congress and the legislature redundant. Bravo.
Today we have had the big Wikileaks dump of 1,000s of pages on Gitmo and the interrogation of Gitmo detainees. My prediction is the story will run for a few days with individual aspects pointed out and then die. The supreme failure of the Obama Administration in my view is not having closed Gitmo--even with all the Congressional resistance. Maybe he should have resorted to the unitary theory of the executive. The stories I've read so far don't make this country look good or even smart.
The Syrian Revolution has picked up steam, while remaining in the background of our news cycles. The Assad dynasty looks like it's defunct. This should dramatically unfold now that the regime's attempt to violently repress the people has only increased protests. Curious in our news is the lack of mention that the Iranians have shipped in intelligence agents to assist in the repression.
Showing posts with label Governor Scott Walker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Governor Scott Walker. Show all posts
Monday, April 25, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Wing-Ding News from the States
To get a handle on the "ignoramitocracy" governing our states, I suggest reading Ross MacDonald's 1947 detective novel Blue City. The novel chronicles corruption in a small Midwest town and highlights the intersection of the business and crime communities. MacDonald writes an imitation of the local Chamber of Commerce's attack on trade unionists as communists, provocateurs and of course, thugs. Meanwhile the reformer Mayor as well as the initially good-intentioned are being blackmailed by the crime bosses.
I gave up waiting for Carl Hiaissen and so recommend Dailykos' poster "perplexed" for regular updates on Rick Scott's Florida. "perplexed" captures the mundane lunacy of the new governor such as deciding the Agriculture Department should take control of school lunches because the prohibition of chocolate milk might hurt Florida's dairy farmers. Or Rick Scott deciding to invest millions in enlarging the port of Miami to capture the traffic coming from the Panama Canal. But others have been capturing the highlights also. Besides gutting the school systems and giving amazing tax benefits to corporations--all in the name of cutting the deficit, Scott also wants to close all public hospitals. He also wants to privatize Medicaid for the poorer citizens. He also has announced random drug tests for public employees and welfare recipients. They don't call him Sick Rott for nothing.
Before we ascribe ideological motives to him, it's best to remember that Rick Scott is a bonafide criminal. His fortune was made by Medicare fraud and he paid the largest fine--$1.5 billion--in United States history for fraud. So it should not surprise us that the company that would conduct the random drug tests would be his wife's ,Solantic. Steve Benen of Washington Monthly caught this and noted that the same "Solantic" company would immediately reap the benefits of any privatization of Medicare. Apparently,this Rick Scott created company took advantage of the 2005 Medicare pilot project on privatization. So now they are all set up to reap the profits.
Rick Scott's Florida will also prohibit public employees from purchasing health insurance that could pay for abortions. Now there is a larger move in all of Florida to prohibit all citizens from buying health insurance to cover abortions. The war against the uteri continues.
Then we travel back to Wisconsin. A Wisconsin court had ordered a stay on the Attorney General from publishing the new union-busting law because of complaints it violated the open meeting law. Not to worry, Senate leader muscles the non-partisan Legislative Bureau to publish it. So Governor Walker proclaims its now officials even though it has not been officially published by the Attorney General as required by law. Forget the issue at stake, the thuggery by the state legislators and Walker during this whole process has been amazing. Now the Legislative Bureau claims the bill isn't official, the Fitzgerald brothers, who control the Senate and the Assembly, proclaim it is. And the Governor says he is going to enforce it immediately. I like the rule of law also.
The Associated Press finally got all the e-mails sent to Walker during this debate. Walker had claimed that the "vast majority" of them supported his position. An AP investigative report found that in fact the majority opposed him. But one of the e-mails was very interesting. A state prosecutor from Indiana urged him to fake an assassination attempt so as to smear the unions. Walker claims he never read this e-mail but the prosecutor was discretely told to resign.
A University of Wisconsin professor named William Cronon wrote a blog critical of Scott Walker's new bill but suggested a "moderate" alternative. The Republicans are demanded all of the professor's e-mails, claiming that he was tantamount to lobbying and that would violate the conditions of his employment since he is a state employee. Prof. Cronon sent a letter about this to Talking Points Memo , which kicked off a firestorm in the state. The Republicans claimed that such actions by the professor--mind you--had a "chilling effect" on legislators trying to get at the truth.
Wisconsin voters have passed the 50% mark for signatures to recall the 8 Republican Senators. Top of the list is our man Randy Hopper, whose mistress now works for the state and he no longer lives in his district. The story of the mistress has legs. Apparently she got a job and recieved a $12,000 increase over the previous person who held this. Not great advertisement for a budget cut debate. It gets worse. She never went through the state procedure to apply for a job. Poor Randy. Now everyone in his district knows all the dirty details.
The race for the Supreme Court position in Wisconsin has really heated up. The winner of the April 5th vote will be the deciding vote on the whole union-busting bill. Scott Walker's candidate is a sitting judge David Presser, who drew attention this week for screaming at the female Chief Justice "you're a bitch" and "I'm going to destroy you." Opponents of Presser unleashed a barrage of attack ads that made note of his failure to investigate the sexual molestation of two children by a Catholic priest. To avoid scandal for the Catholic Church,Presser went to the bishop, who quietly had the priest transferred within Wisconsin. And the priest continued his wanton ways.
Of course, the Senator who spearheaded the bill that killed the ability of children to seek redress from the Catholic Church was none other than our man Randy Hopper. With the Fitzgeralds in charge of the Senate and Assembly and the Fitzgerald brothers drafting their dad to get the top job of the State Police,you get the picture of corruption gone out of control.
Do the Koch Brothers bidding much, Scott? Remember Republicans everywhere are against regulation. But Scott Walker seems very concerned to tighten the regulations against wind energy. In essence, his new regulations--the toughest in America--cancel the wind development turbines planned by one of the largest wind turbine companies in the country--Invenery. Besides refusing the high-speed rail project, Walker's latest move kills another $1.5 billion in the state. Walker also wants to eliminate Wisconsin's state target of having 5% of the state's energy pprovided by alternative sources. But he can still sell off the state's power plants in non-competitive bidding.
New Hampshire is now debating a union-busting law, which exceeds the demonic dimensions of Wisconsin. Reading the law, I had to wonder whether these mental midgets really want a school system and government where employees can be fired at will? Can you imagine having to plan on a year to year basis never knowing who your employees are? Luckily, democratic Governor Lynch promises to veto this nonsense.
Meanwhile in the state of Maine,teabag Governor LePage wants to strip a labor mural from the Department of Labor because the state views business and labor equally. He also wants to rename the conference rooms in the building so they do not reflect a bias to labor. The mural was done by a Maine artist, who won a 2008 competition for the project. Since citizens always liked it,they have raised questions whether it is legal to move it.
There are two states where property taxes have been lingering political issues for years--Maine and New Jersey. With Teabag Le Page and Chris Chrissie promising to address this during their campaigns, we should note that in both states property taxes have increased.
For those of us planning on medical exiles because of the state of our national healthcare system, we welcome the new that Vermont's House passed a single-payer plan. The news that Vermont will adopt a single-payer healthcare system has caused 20,000 doctors to volunteer to move to Vermont to work. Perhaps, there is hope yet.
The hero of our detective novel falls in love with a local woman and must decide whether to move away for a fresh start. He decides to stay in the corrupt city to clean it up. But remember that was written before Ross MacDonald became realistic.
I gave up waiting for Carl Hiaissen and so recommend Dailykos' poster "perplexed" for regular updates on Rick Scott's Florida. "perplexed" captures the mundane lunacy of the new governor such as deciding the Agriculture Department should take control of school lunches because the prohibition of chocolate milk might hurt Florida's dairy farmers. Or Rick Scott deciding to invest millions in enlarging the port of Miami to capture the traffic coming from the Panama Canal. But others have been capturing the highlights also. Besides gutting the school systems and giving amazing tax benefits to corporations--all in the name of cutting the deficit, Scott also wants to close all public hospitals. He also wants to privatize Medicaid for the poorer citizens. He also has announced random drug tests for public employees and welfare recipients. They don't call him Sick Rott for nothing.
Before we ascribe ideological motives to him, it's best to remember that Rick Scott is a bonafide criminal. His fortune was made by Medicare fraud and he paid the largest fine--$1.5 billion--in United States history for fraud. So it should not surprise us that the company that would conduct the random drug tests would be his wife's ,Solantic. Steve Benen of Washington Monthly caught this and noted that the same "Solantic" company would immediately reap the benefits of any privatization of Medicare. Apparently,this Rick Scott created company took advantage of the 2005 Medicare pilot project on privatization. So now they are all set up to reap the profits.
Rick Scott's Florida will also prohibit public employees from purchasing health insurance that could pay for abortions. Now there is a larger move in all of Florida to prohibit all citizens from buying health insurance to cover abortions. The war against the uteri continues.
Then we travel back to Wisconsin. A Wisconsin court had ordered a stay on the Attorney General from publishing the new union-busting law because of complaints it violated the open meeting law. Not to worry, Senate leader muscles the non-partisan Legislative Bureau to publish it. So Governor Walker proclaims its now officials even though it has not been officially published by the Attorney General as required by law. Forget the issue at stake, the thuggery by the state legislators and Walker during this whole process has been amazing. Now the Legislative Bureau claims the bill isn't official, the Fitzgerald brothers, who control the Senate and the Assembly, proclaim it is. And the Governor says he is going to enforce it immediately. I like the rule of law also.
The Associated Press finally got all the e-mails sent to Walker during this debate. Walker had claimed that the "vast majority" of them supported his position. An AP investigative report found that in fact the majority opposed him. But one of the e-mails was very interesting. A state prosecutor from Indiana urged him to fake an assassination attempt so as to smear the unions. Walker claims he never read this e-mail but the prosecutor was discretely told to resign.
A University of Wisconsin professor named William Cronon wrote a blog critical of Scott Walker's new bill but suggested a "moderate" alternative. The Republicans are demanded all of the professor's e-mails, claiming that he was tantamount to lobbying and that would violate the conditions of his employment since he is a state employee. Prof. Cronon sent a letter about this to Talking Points Memo , which kicked off a firestorm in the state. The Republicans claimed that such actions by the professor--mind you--had a "chilling effect" on legislators trying to get at the truth.
Wisconsin voters have passed the 50% mark for signatures to recall the 8 Republican Senators. Top of the list is our man Randy Hopper, whose mistress now works for the state and he no longer lives in his district. The story of the mistress has legs. Apparently she got a job and recieved a $12,000 increase over the previous person who held this. Not great advertisement for a budget cut debate. It gets worse. She never went through the state procedure to apply for a job. Poor Randy. Now everyone in his district knows all the dirty details.
The race for the Supreme Court position in Wisconsin has really heated up. The winner of the April 5th vote will be the deciding vote on the whole union-busting bill. Scott Walker's candidate is a sitting judge David Presser, who drew attention this week for screaming at the female Chief Justice "you're a bitch" and "I'm going to destroy you." Opponents of Presser unleashed a barrage of attack ads that made note of his failure to investigate the sexual molestation of two children by a Catholic priest. To avoid scandal for the Catholic Church,Presser went to the bishop, who quietly had the priest transferred within Wisconsin. And the priest continued his wanton ways.
Of course, the Senator who spearheaded the bill that killed the ability of children to seek redress from the Catholic Church was none other than our man Randy Hopper. With the Fitzgeralds in charge of the Senate and Assembly and the Fitzgerald brothers drafting their dad to get the top job of the State Police,you get the picture of corruption gone out of control.
Do the Koch Brothers bidding much, Scott? Remember Republicans everywhere are against regulation. But Scott Walker seems very concerned to tighten the regulations against wind energy. In essence, his new regulations--the toughest in America--cancel the wind development turbines planned by one of the largest wind turbine companies in the country--Invenery. Besides refusing the high-speed rail project, Walker's latest move kills another $1.5 billion in the state. Walker also wants to eliminate Wisconsin's state target of having 5% of the state's energy pprovided by alternative sources. But he can still sell off the state's power plants in non-competitive bidding.
New Hampshire is now debating a union-busting law, which exceeds the demonic dimensions of Wisconsin. Reading the law, I had to wonder whether these mental midgets really want a school system and government where employees can be fired at will? Can you imagine having to plan on a year to year basis never knowing who your employees are? Luckily, democratic Governor Lynch promises to veto this nonsense.
Meanwhile in the state of Maine,teabag Governor LePage wants to strip a labor mural from the Department of Labor because the state views business and labor equally. He also wants to rename the conference rooms in the building so they do not reflect a bias to labor. The mural was done by a Maine artist, who won a 2008 competition for the project. Since citizens always liked it,they have raised questions whether it is legal to move it.
There are two states where property taxes have been lingering political issues for years--Maine and New Jersey. With Teabag Le Page and Chris Chrissie promising to address this during their campaigns, we should note that in both states property taxes have increased.
For those of us planning on medical exiles because of the state of our national healthcare system, we welcome the new that Vermont's House passed a single-payer plan. The news that Vermont will adopt a single-payer healthcare system has caused 20,000 doctors to volunteer to move to Vermont to work. Perhaps, there is hope yet.
The hero of our detective novel falls in love with a local woman and must decide whether to move away for a fresh start. He decides to stay in the corrupt city to clean it up. But remember that was written before Ross MacDonald became realistic.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
In Emergency Vote,GOP KILLS ELMO and Supports the Plague
You really can't make up what the House is doing even if you ingested massive amounts of drugs. Prompted by the James O'Keefe video punking of NPR fund-raisers,the House called an emergency vote and suspended the rules to vote to eliminate funding for NPR and PBS.
Anthony Weiner from New York claimed on the House floor that Republicans really knew what disturbed Americans--Click and Clack. He went on to say that these two characters, when talking about fixing cars, were actually sending messages to the enemy. Weiner didn't have the decency to mourn the death of Elmo.
Democrats tried their own feeble attempt to submit a law that would prohibit any government funds from being used to advertise on Fox News. They, of course, failed. Instead,Elmo and the Cookie Monster got the ax.
But why do you need Sesame Street if all American children are going to die of disease? Just to make sure they were not sending a mixed message, the House also decided to eliminate funding for the Center for Disease Control. Read that over again--really, eliminate the Center for Disease Control, a government agency designed to alert Americans of health threats and the outbreak of deadly diseases. But maybe Jesus will heal us all.
In light of the Japanese nuclear crisis, the House should also vote to eliminate funding for the Nuclear Regulatory Agency because it "regulates" and that kills jobs.
Christianist Steve King of Iowa said about the previous vote to defund tsunami monitoring that the vote was water under the bridge and they shouldn't reconsider it. The timing of the Japanese tragedy was just coincidence and the media is paying too much attention to the House vote.
Maybe the GOP really does have a secret jobs agenda. If you exterminate enough Americans,the unemployment rate might go down.
Is the slogan,"Ignorance in making laws is no excuse"? Something like that.
There seems to be an unbroken continuity between the teabaggers and the Republican state governments.
Government Scott Walker's "budget repair" bill cut $500 million from health programs that benefit over 1.2 million people. But the generous thing is that Walker increased the funds for funeral and cemetary costs.
Our man Randy Hopper is now running ads attacking the Wisconsin demonstrators and defending himself. Well, the Randy Man seems to have opened up another can of worms. Remember his mistress' bio and photo were scrubbed from the lobby group she worked for. The local press wondered where the lucky woman is. She got a job with the state government. Coincidence? We report, you decide.
The Randy Man seems a bit alarmed about being recalled. A state senator in a Midwestern state. Who do you call? He hires a big-shot in Chris Chrissie's New Jersey campaign to assist him. Business must be good,heh?
The Wisconsin Republican Senators flew in last night for a thank-you fund-raiser at Haley Barbour's Lobby Shop, now run by his son. In olden days before the internet, you could do such a thing. But the Senators were greeted by a demonstration that reached 1,000. It got so crowded, the D.C. police closed off the street. With the crowd increasing, the group just formed a parade and marched down the street to the Chamber of Commerce to protest. A fun time was had by all.
The Mayor of Lansing, Michigan has joined the demonstrators in that state. The demonstrators have found out that they can recall Rick Snyder and his behavior modfication team in July.
Meanwhile in Ohio, John Kasich is touring the state trumpeting his plans to eliminate state pensions. His 800-page budget is getting less than rave reviews from the Republicans who see their electoral fortunes going down the drain.
Oberlin College students cut a video saying they have sex and that's why they need Planned Parenthood. Nice idea but the plague is coming.
Sarah Palin is going to visit Israel because that's where Jesus lives. That really is connected to all of the above. In more ways then you can know.
PPP found out that Charlie Sheen would defeat Sarah Palin for President. Now that's a group that is smoking too much ganja or has too much time on their hands.
My favorite Jack Nicklaus golf course bill was defeated. Jack won't be building the golf courses in the Everglades. And I'm not so sure many people would like to play on them anyway.
I've wanted to do a Florida post since the insanity began building there in earnest but I've been waiting for Carl Hiassen to comment on this with his unique genius and language in capturing the gonzo aspects of the state. Where are you, Carl, Jesus Loves You More Than You Will Know.
Anthony Weiner from New York claimed on the House floor that Republicans really knew what disturbed Americans--Click and Clack. He went on to say that these two characters, when talking about fixing cars, were actually sending messages to the enemy. Weiner didn't have the decency to mourn the death of Elmo.
Democrats tried their own feeble attempt to submit a law that would prohibit any government funds from being used to advertise on Fox News. They, of course, failed. Instead,Elmo and the Cookie Monster got the ax.
But why do you need Sesame Street if all American children are going to die of disease? Just to make sure they were not sending a mixed message, the House also decided to eliminate funding for the Center for Disease Control. Read that over again--really, eliminate the Center for Disease Control, a government agency designed to alert Americans of health threats and the outbreak of deadly diseases. But maybe Jesus will heal us all.
In light of the Japanese nuclear crisis, the House should also vote to eliminate funding for the Nuclear Regulatory Agency because it "regulates" and that kills jobs.
Christianist Steve King of Iowa said about the previous vote to defund tsunami monitoring that the vote was water under the bridge and they shouldn't reconsider it. The timing of the Japanese tragedy was just coincidence and the media is paying too much attention to the House vote.
Maybe the GOP really does have a secret jobs agenda. If you exterminate enough Americans,the unemployment rate might go down.
Is the slogan,"Ignorance in making laws is no excuse"? Something like that.
There seems to be an unbroken continuity between the teabaggers and the Republican state governments.
Government Scott Walker's "budget repair" bill cut $500 million from health programs that benefit over 1.2 million people. But the generous thing is that Walker increased the funds for funeral and cemetary costs.
Our man Randy Hopper is now running ads attacking the Wisconsin demonstrators and defending himself. Well, the Randy Man seems to have opened up another can of worms. Remember his mistress' bio and photo were scrubbed from the lobby group she worked for. The local press wondered where the lucky woman is. She got a job with the state government. Coincidence? We report, you decide.
The Randy Man seems a bit alarmed about being recalled. A state senator in a Midwestern state. Who do you call? He hires a big-shot in Chris Chrissie's New Jersey campaign to assist him. Business must be good,heh?
The Wisconsin Republican Senators flew in last night for a thank-you fund-raiser at Haley Barbour's Lobby Shop, now run by his son. In olden days before the internet, you could do such a thing. But the Senators were greeted by a demonstration that reached 1,000. It got so crowded, the D.C. police closed off the street. With the crowd increasing, the group just formed a parade and marched down the street to the Chamber of Commerce to protest. A fun time was had by all.
The Mayor of Lansing, Michigan has joined the demonstrators in that state. The demonstrators have found out that they can recall Rick Snyder and his behavior modfication team in July.
Meanwhile in Ohio, John Kasich is touring the state trumpeting his plans to eliminate state pensions. His 800-page budget is getting less than rave reviews from the Republicans who see their electoral fortunes going down the drain.
Oberlin College students cut a video saying they have sex and that's why they need Planned Parenthood. Nice idea but the plague is coming.
Sarah Palin is going to visit Israel because that's where Jesus lives. That really is connected to all of the above. In more ways then you can know.
PPP found out that Charlie Sheen would defeat Sarah Palin for President. Now that's a group that is smoking too much ganja or has too much time on their hands.
My favorite Jack Nicklaus golf course bill was defeated. Jack won't be building the golf courses in the Everglades. And I'm not so sure many people would like to play on them anyway.
I've wanted to do a Florida post since the insanity began building there in earnest but I've been waiting for Carl Hiassen to comment on this with his unique genius and language in capturing the gonzo aspects of the state. Where are you, Carl, Jesus Loves You More Than You Will Know.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
The Spring of Our Discontent
I shouldn't make jokes about Randy Newman. It's like magical thinking. Yes,indeed, folks, Governor Kasich yesterday opened the Ohio state parks to oil and gas drilling and severely cut the state's environmental agencies. Yesterday, Koch Industries and their subsidiary Georgia-Pacific were being investigated for polluting the Coffee Creek in Arkansas, pouring 45 million of waste in, producing an "odorous foam and patches of black water." The Creek feeds into Louisiana's Quachita River, which had been a recreational area for its pristine waters but which has seen its local economy disappear with the pollution. So Randy and his burning river will soon return to Ohio. And our own House of Representatives just put on the floor a bill to limit any restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions--not limit greenhouse gas--limit the restrictions on them. Thanks Charles Koch.
Also, because Ohio had to deal with the budget, it was another opportunity to restrict abortion rights. The actual Ohio budget was published by the Columbus Dispatch, despite Governor Kasich's prohibition. And what a budget it is. All the prisons will be privatized and all parole officers eliminated. He says this will earn the state $200 million and save another $20 million per year. All the state liquor stores will be sold. (In Virginia, this is being debated but legislators found that after the first windfall, it actually costs the state money.)
Then we move to budget cuts. All local governments are cut by 25%. Libraries are also cut. Then the interesting stuff begins with the re-organization of the school systems. Education in theory gets a raise and tuition hikes to state colleges are kept to about a 3% range. But then you get into the whole hocus pocus of charter schools, vouchers and the like. I tend to think this creates educational apartheid but I may be wrong.
Now Back in Wisconsin, Governor Walker has already created 10,000 jobs through his policies. That was quick. Well, he was actually quoting the last governor's numbers as his own. Instead, what Walker faces is no longer a trickle but a torrent of retirements and he will soon face a severe deterioration of services throughout the government.
Walker also has proposed that the mediator for contract or labor disputes be a political appointee. Given the prospects of his recall, that might not be bad. But it's nuts.
Conservative websites are apoplectic over unions pulling out their funds from the M & I bank. They've even accused unions of being disloyal. Disloyal to a bank? What happened to the free market and choice?
Our Man, Randy Hopper continues to step in it. Complaints have been filed at the Attorney-General's office because of the discovery he doesn't live in his district.
Tough Man Majority leader Fitzgerald relented and rescinded the fines against the Democratic senators . He even decided to return their voting rights in committees. Big of him.
The occupation of the Michigan capital has begun. Michael Moore is leading the charge with the UAW. Newly elected Republican Rick Snyder has embraked on perhaps the most radical restructuring of Michigan. If you read the entire bill on "financial martial law", you have a fascinating document , which may serve as the model for other state governments and finally our national government. This program deserves real study and analysis because it is far worse in its implications than the unions or the Left believe.
This plan is like the entire state of Michigan becoming an auto company under U.S. government receivership. First, the Governor has severely cut state funding of local governments. Then to prepare for the impending disaster, he can unilaterally place "emergency managers" in charge of school boards,towns, counties and cities. First, a corporation must determine whether there is such an emergency. Once the manager is sent in, he or she can fire elected officials unilaterally,undo the results of democratic elections, dissolve or disincorporate governments, unite desparate governments and cancel union contracts.
You can play around with this for some delightful scenarios. The Mayor of Detroit becomes popular and thinks of running against a standing Governor. The Governor to embarass his rival declares a financial emergency in Detroit and sends a corporate manager to take over. The Mayor calls out the police to prevent the manager from taking office. The Governor sends in the National Guard. And off we go.
Now the next phase is something out of USAID programs gone mad. The officials, who the corporations have determined didn't make the grade, will be sent for re-education to a team of corporate managers, including General Motors and will be taught how to get efficient results. If they successfully complete the course, then they may be allowed to return to their position.
Now there is no sunset clause in this law when a school board or a town is returned to democratic rule. Let's say Ypsilanti goes under a financial manager and the situation straightens out in a year. There is no provision to allow the city to return to its original democratic state.
Then you have the reality of corporations wanting to own towns and cities. Since the Governor can act unilaterally,he just has to pay off campaign donors. You literally will have company towns back in America again.
This reminds me of the movie "Brazil". I have a cousin, a lesbian teamster with a semi living in Michigan and I hope she joins the WOW--WAR ON WORKERS rally of the teamsters. She looks just like the lady truckdriver in the movie. It would be appropriate if she drove by the capitol.
Now there is a little notion of democracy to consider here. This is a radical program, which brings up a whole host of public policy issues. There was no public debate over this. There was no discussion in the camapign on this. It's simply that one political party has agreed to ram this through without any dissent. This is such a significant move that the whole state should be hosting debates, having news casts about the pros and cons. If people are going to give away their democratic rights,at least have them do so openly and after discussion.
But, folks, this is the state to watch in terms of the dystopian future. These moves in Michigan and to a lesser degree Kasich's less radical but nonetheless politically altering policies make me think that the gig is up for the Republican presidential nomination. I believe alot of these managerial moves in government are preparations for Mitt Romney.
And this doesn't interfere with the social conservatives. Nine--that's right 9--anti-evolution bills have been introduced in state legislatures since January 1.
Also, because Ohio had to deal with the budget, it was another opportunity to restrict abortion rights. The actual Ohio budget was published by the Columbus Dispatch, despite Governor Kasich's prohibition. And what a budget it is. All the prisons will be privatized and all parole officers eliminated. He says this will earn the state $200 million and save another $20 million per year. All the state liquor stores will be sold. (In Virginia, this is being debated but legislators found that after the first windfall, it actually costs the state money.)
Then we move to budget cuts. All local governments are cut by 25%. Libraries are also cut. Then the interesting stuff begins with the re-organization of the school systems. Education in theory gets a raise and tuition hikes to state colleges are kept to about a 3% range. But then you get into the whole hocus pocus of charter schools, vouchers and the like. I tend to think this creates educational apartheid but I may be wrong.
Now Back in Wisconsin, Governor Walker has already created 10,000 jobs through his policies. That was quick. Well, he was actually quoting the last governor's numbers as his own. Instead, what Walker faces is no longer a trickle but a torrent of retirements and he will soon face a severe deterioration of services throughout the government.
Walker also has proposed that the mediator for contract or labor disputes be a political appointee. Given the prospects of his recall, that might not be bad. But it's nuts.
Conservative websites are apoplectic over unions pulling out their funds from the M & I bank. They've even accused unions of being disloyal. Disloyal to a bank? What happened to the free market and choice?
Our Man, Randy Hopper continues to step in it. Complaints have been filed at the Attorney-General's office because of the discovery he doesn't live in his district.
Tough Man Majority leader Fitzgerald relented and rescinded the fines against the Democratic senators . He even decided to return their voting rights in committees. Big of him.
The occupation of the Michigan capital has begun. Michael Moore is leading the charge with the UAW. Newly elected Republican Rick Snyder has embraked on perhaps the most radical restructuring of Michigan. If you read the entire bill on "financial martial law", you have a fascinating document , which may serve as the model for other state governments and finally our national government. This program deserves real study and analysis because it is far worse in its implications than the unions or the Left believe.
This plan is like the entire state of Michigan becoming an auto company under U.S. government receivership. First, the Governor has severely cut state funding of local governments. Then to prepare for the impending disaster, he can unilaterally place "emergency managers" in charge of school boards,towns, counties and cities. First, a corporation must determine whether there is such an emergency. Once the manager is sent in, he or she can fire elected officials unilaterally,undo the results of democratic elections, dissolve or disincorporate governments, unite desparate governments and cancel union contracts.
You can play around with this for some delightful scenarios. The Mayor of Detroit becomes popular and thinks of running against a standing Governor. The Governor to embarass his rival declares a financial emergency in Detroit and sends a corporate manager to take over. The Mayor calls out the police to prevent the manager from taking office. The Governor sends in the National Guard. And off we go.
Now the next phase is something out of USAID programs gone mad. The officials, who the corporations have determined didn't make the grade, will be sent for re-education to a team of corporate managers, including General Motors and will be taught how to get efficient results. If they successfully complete the course, then they may be allowed to return to their position.
Now there is no sunset clause in this law when a school board or a town is returned to democratic rule. Let's say Ypsilanti goes under a financial manager and the situation straightens out in a year. There is no provision to allow the city to return to its original democratic state.
Then you have the reality of corporations wanting to own towns and cities. Since the Governor can act unilaterally,he just has to pay off campaign donors. You literally will have company towns back in America again.
This reminds me of the movie "Brazil". I have a cousin, a lesbian teamster with a semi living in Michigan and I hope she joins the WOW--WAR ON WORKERS rally of the teamsters. She looks just like the lady truckdriver in the movie. It would be appropriate if she drove by the capitol.
Now there is a little notion of democracy to consider here. This is a radical program, which brings up a whole host of public policy issues. There was no public debate over this. There was no discussion in the camapign on this. It's simply that one political party has agreed to ram this through without any dissent. This is such a significant move that the whole state should be hosting debates, having news casts about the pros and cons. If people are going to give away their democratic rights,at least have them do so openly and after discussion.
But, folks, this is the state to watch in terms of the dystopian future. These moves in Michigan and to a lesser degree Kasich's less radical but nonetheless politically altering policies make me think that the gig is up for the Republican presidential nomination. I believe alot of these managerial moves in government are preparations for Mitt Romney.
And this doesn't interfere with the social conservatives. Nine--that's right 9--anti-evolution bills have been introduced in state legislatures since January 1.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
The Ides of March in Kochistan
The Koch Brothers, the Hannibel Lecters of Politics, without the class, have been busy scrubbing Wikipedia and Google about their more nefarious activities and past. The two are walking adverisements for high estate taxes and the Rico Act. The good brother, William, referred to his brothers as running a "criminal enterprise". The poor lobbyists for Koch Industries in Madison have been running around state listening to their bosses being invoked in every speech. Apparently, they have been cornering speakers who mention the Brothers asking "Why did you mention them?"
I've come to the conclusion that the Kochs really don't have any ideology. They are sociopaths who want to be able to do anything they desire. The tip-off was David Koch's throw-away comment in the Jane Mayer piece in the New Yorker that he was an "anarchist." You have to feel sorry for people who had their father and came from demon seed. Imagine if you always have to air-brush your father's fervent anti-Americanism and his admiration for Benito Mussolini. But there is no governing philosophy behind them except the desire to act as marauders.
Let's take the staggering fact that they fund all anti-climate change programs in various conservative think tanks and even footed the bill for the anti-carbon emissions referendum in California. You know they don't personally believe this. It's simply because they do not want any regulations on their oil business. The damage this has done is turn the Republican Party, which supported climate change legislation, totally around that they now are all climate change deniers.
I'm convinced that the kerfuffle over their little exclusive retreat with Clarence Thomas and Glenn Beck to plot the downfall of Barack Obama was simply a social attempt for them to pick up some class. They wanted to meet Clarence and Glenn, not vice versa. That's their idea of social climbing. Can you imagine? At least their gay brother Frederick has some style, although collecting nude photos of Yul Brynner is a bit tacky. But he does have a beautiful Modigliani.
Now the Koch-funded think tank ALEC has provided the legislative templates for all the anti-collective bargaining bills throughout the Midwest. Each of the states are implementing their agenda in their own way. I'm surprised that Gov Kasich in Ohio doesn't allow them to frack so that the Cuyhauga River can start burning to the sea again. Would they invite Randy Newman to their next Get The Black Man Party? Then he could sing Sail Way.
You would think with their minions shuffling off into the night through a tunnel that things would be quiet in Wisconsin. But no, the mistress of Poor Randy Hopper had to have her photo and bio scrubbed from the lobby shop she works for. His wife did sign the recall petition after all. His Republican constituency is furious with him because once the story went viral, it turns out he hasn't lived in his district for over a year.
The Democrats are claiming they have reached 45% of the signatures needed to recall 8 of the Republican Senators. Early polling suggests that Democrats will be able to take back the Senate by picking up at least three of these seats, even Hopper's.
Senate Majority Leader Fitzgerald should become an honorary Koch for his utter classlessness. Fitzgerald already took away the Democrats' parking places, their xerox privileges and some of their staff. Now, he has e-mailed that when the legislature is back in session the Democrats will not bbe able to have positions on committees or vote in committee. Classy,heh?
Secretary of State LaFollette, descendent from Fightin' Bob, will not print the anti-union bill until the 21st as is legal. But Governor Walker wanted it done today. Meanwhile, the unions are using the time to secure the contracts they had already negotiated.
Governor Scott Walker, who is considered a dead man walking,showed up to speak at the Lincoln-Reagan Republican dinner and was greeted by several thousand protestors. He now travels around the state with a large police escort. This is a small state. Just to give you a contrast--Maine used to have a Governor Angus King and he would drive around the state on a motorcycle without the need of any security or escorts.
You know the Governors went a bridge too far when the unions joined a rally in rural Wisconsin sponsored by the Sierra Club. The group consciously tagged it Hard Hats and Tree Huggers Together.
Bill O'Reilly of Tiller, Tiller, the Child Killer Fame,said on Fox News that liberals should apologize for the death threats against the Republicans in the state. But the problem is that these threats are coming from Republicans and independents who feel betrayed.
Milwaukee is now complaining that the infrastructure is collapsing. Remember the Governor was the county commissioner until a few months ago.
I wonder if Randy Hopper is going to seek sanctuary from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. He was after all the point man to kill the Child Victim Bill, which protected the Catholic Church from a host of cases against pedophile priests. And Randy did his job--he killed the bill.
The department of the state government that registers retirements reports that the first four days of March they recorded more teacher retirements than the same month last year. Because of the budget cuts for education in Madison, scores of younger teachers are leaving the profession because they can't afford the job. Maybe they should walk down the street to the Koch Brothers' new lobby office and get a job there. The University of Wisconsin is seeing more early retirment of professors and staff because older personnel want to save the pensions and medical benefits they currently have. This is how a very successful educational system gets destroyed.
Now back to Ohio, John Kasich delivered his state of the state address to thousands of protestors. Remember Kasich barely beat Strickland and trumpeted his commitment to transparency. Yesterday he notified the press that he did not want them to disclose his budget. What is he going to do if the Cleveland Plains Dealer does it--waterboard the reporter or detain him like Bradley Manning. This is the same guy who ruled that everything of his plan Jobs for Ohio is secret and that no businesses who received government contracts should be known. It's not coincidence that Kasich has the lowest approval rating of a new Ohio Governor in history.
Perhaps, the best that would come out of this is for President Obama to appoint Gov. Strickland as the new DNC Chair since he will need the state for re-election.
Meanwhile in Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder ran on a platform of bipartisan cooperation and invoked past Republican governors who were moderates. He turned on a dome when elected. You would think that a state which has only seen jobs creating by President Obama through the rescue of the car industry and the development of solar and battery power would want to remain friendly with the people who created the only jobs in 20 years in the state. But no,the Governor decided to cut business taxes dramatically and increase them on the middle class.
But that's really not the issue. Michigan has passed legislation that would allow the Governor to unilaterally declare a locality, town, city or school district a financial emergency and suspend the democratic rule and bid out its management to either a coporation or city manager type. The Democrats, who are in a minority, tried to suggest that whoever or whatever assumed these positions would earn less than the Governor. The motion was defeated. Now the Governor is free to auction off Michigan to private corporations. I think we should demand Koch Industries buy the whole state . Then their subsidiary Georgia-Northern could clear cut all the Michigan forests.
Where does Dixie Cups go for their reputation back? After all they existed before they would bought by the evil brothers.
I've come to the conclusion that the Kochs really don't have any ideology. They are sociopaths who want to be able to do anything they desire. The tip-off was David Koch's throw-away comment in the Jane Mayer piece in the New Yorker that he was an "anarchist." You have to feel sorry for people who had their father and came from demon seed. Imagine if you always have to air-brush your father's fervent anti-Americanism and his admiration for Benito Mussolini. But there is no governing philosophy behind them except the desire to act as marauders.
Let's take the staggering fact that they fund all anti-climate change programs in various conservative think tanks and even footed the bill for the anti-carbon emissions referendum in California. You know they don't personally believe this. It's simply because they do not want any regulations on their oil business. The damage this has done is turn the Republican Party, which supported climate change legislation, totally around that they now are all climate change deniers.
I'm convinced that the kerfuffle over their little exclusive retreat with Clarence Thomas and Glenn Beck to plot the downfall of Barack Obama was simply a social attempt for them to pick up some class. They wanted to meet Clarence and Glenn, not vice versa. That's their idea of social climbing. Can you imagine? At least their gay brother Frederick has some style, although collecting nude photos of Yul Brynner is a bit tacky. But he does have a beautiful Modigliani.
Now the Koch-funded think tank ALEC has provided the legislative templates for all the anti-collective bargaining bills throughout the Midwest. Each of the states are implementing their agenda in their own way. I'm surprised that Gov Kasich in Ohio doesn't allow them to frack so that the Cuyhauga River can start burning to the sea again. Would they invite Randy Newman to their next Get The Black Man Party? Then he could sing Sail Way.
You would think with their minions shuffling off into the night through a tunnel that things would be quiet in Wisconsin. But no, the mistress of Poor Randy Hopper had to have her photo and bio scrubbed from the lobby shop she works for. His wife did sign the recall petition after all. His Republican constituency is furious with him because once the story went viral, it turns out he hasn't lived in his district for over a year.
The Democrats are claiming they have reached 45% of the signatures needed to recall 8 of the Republican Senators. Early polling suggests that Democrats will be able to take back the Senate by picking up at least three of these seats, even Hopper's.
Senate Majority Leader Fitzgerald should become an honorary Koch for his utter classlessness. Fitzgerald already took away the Democrats' parking places, their xerox privileges and some of their staff. Now, he has e-mailed that when the legislature is back in session the Democrats will not bbe able to have positions on committees or vote in committee. Classy,heh?
Secretary of State LaFollette, descendent from Fightin' Bob, will not print the anti-union bill until the 21st as is legal. But Governor Walker wanted it done today. Meanwhile, the unions are using the time to secure the contracts they had already negotiated.
Governor Scott Walker, who is considered a dead man walking,showed up to speak at the Lincoln-Reagan Republican dinner and was greeted by several thousand protestors. He now travels around the state with a large police escort. This is a small state. Just to give you a contrast--Maine used to have a Governor Angus King and he would drive around the state on a motorcycle without the need of any security or escorts.
You know the Governors went a bridge too far when the unions joined a rally in rural Wisconsin sponsored by the Sierra Club. The group consciously tagged it Hard Hats and Tree Huggers Together.
Bill O'Reilly of Tiller, Tiller, the Child Killer Fame,said on Fox News that liberals should apologize for the death threats against the Republicans in the state. But the problem is that these threats are coming from Republicans and independents who feel betrayed.
Milwaukee is now complaining that the infrastructure is collapsing. Remember the Governor was the county commissioner until a few months ago.
I wonder if Randy Hopper is going to seek sanctuary from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. He was after all the point man to kill the Child Victim Bill, which protected the Catholic Church from a host of cases against pedophile priests. And Randy did his job--he killed the bill.
The department of the state government that registers retirements reports that the first four days of March they recorded more teacher retirements than the same month last year. Because of the budget cuts for education in Madison, scores of younger teachers are leaving the profession because they can't afford the job. Maybe they should walk down the street to the Koch Brothers' new lobby office and get a job there. The University of Wisconsin is seeing more early retirment of professors and staff because older personnel want to save the pensions and medical benefits they currently have. This is how a very successful educational system gets destroyed.
Now back to Ohio, John Kasich delivered his state of the state address to thousands of protestors. Remember Kasich barely beat Strickland and trumpeted his commitment to transparency. Yesterday he notified the press that he did not want them to disclose his budget. What is he going to do if the Cleveland Plains Dealer does it--waterboard the reporter or detain him like Bradley Manning. This is the same guy who ruled that everything of his plan Jobs for Ohio is secret and that no businesses who received government contracts should be known. It's not coincidence that Kasich has the lowest approval rating of a new Ohio Governor in history.
Perhaps, the best that would come out of this is for President Obama to appoint Gov. Strickland as the new DNC Chair since he will need the state for re-election.
Meanwhile in Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder ran on a platform of bipartisan cooperation and invoked past Republican governors who were moderates. He turned on a dome when elected. You would think that a state which has only seen jobs creating by President Obama through the rescue of the car industry and the development of solar and battery power would want to remain friendly with the people who created the only jobs in 20 years in the state. But no,the Governor decided to cut business taxes dramatically and increase them on the middle class.
But that's really not the issue. Michigan has passed legislation that would allow the Governor to unilaterally declare a locality, town, city or school district a financial emergency and suspend the democratic rule and bid out its management to either a coporation or city manager type. The Democrats, who are in a minority, tried to suggest that whoever or whatever assumed these positions would earn less than the Governor. The motion was defeated. Now the Governor is free to auction off Michigan to private corporations. I think we should demand Koch Industries buy the whole state . Then their subsidiary Georgia-Northern could clear cut all the Michigan forests.
Where does Dixie Cups go for their reputation back? After all they existed before they would bought by the evil brothers.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
It's Even Worse Than You Think
The sitting Attorney General of Wisconsin read aloud his letter to the Majority leader of the Wisconsin that it was illegal for him to go ahead with the planned vote. But Fitzgerald did it anyway.
Governor Walker applauded the Legislature standing up to the status quo. He claimed that the bill "would ensure Wisconsin has a business climate that allows the private sector to create 250,000 jobs." None of this makes any real-world sense.
The D.C. Lobbying Firm,BGP has announced they will raising funds next week for all the Wisconsin Republican legislators here in town.
But here's the rub. If the bill has fiscal implications for the state, it is unconstitutional because such a bill requires a quorum. A few Wisconsin observers have argued that anything having to do with collective bargaining,medical insurance or payment to public workers has fiscal implications. Others just say that if it doesn't have a fiscal implication then Governor Walker was simply lying all along.
State Senator Mark Miller said,:" In thirty minutes, 18 state sentors undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin. Tonight, 18 senate Republicans conspired to take the government back from the people."
Some blame the unions for being caught flat-footed on this. Another Democratic legislator claimed that passing the bill this way was already illegal according to Wisconsin laws about open meetings.
If you get a chance, check out Karl Rove's anti-union and anti-Obama ad for Wisconsin. It's a foretaste for 2012.
Governor Walker applauded the Legislature standing up to the status quo. He claimed that the bill "would ensure Wisconsin has a business climate that allows the private sector to create 250,000 jobs." None of this makes any real-world sense.
The D.C. Lobbying Firm,BGP has announced they will raising funds next week for all the Wisconsin Republican legislators here in town.
But here's the rub. If the bill has fiscal implications for the state, it is unconstitutional because such a bill requires a quorum. A few Wisconsin observers have argued that anything having to do with collective bargaining,medical insurance or payment to public workers has fiscal implications. Others just say that if it doesn't have a fiscal implication then Governor Walker was simply lying all along.
State Senator Mark Miller said,:" In thirty minutes, 18 state sentors undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin. Tonight, 18 senate Republicans conspired to take the government back from the people."
Some blame the unions for being caught flat-footed on this. Another Democratic legislator claimed that passing the bill this way was already illegal according to Wisconsin laws about open meetings.
If you get a chance, check out Karl Rove's anti-union and anti-Obama ad for Wisconsin. It's a foretaste for 2012.
I'm Sorry, Rachel Maddow was Right--It's Not About The Budget
Thousands of Wisconsin citizens are moving to the Capitol at this hour after the Senate passed by a 18 to 1 vote a bill stripping public workers of the rights to collective bargaining. The crowds in the Capitol building itself chanted,"Shame, Shame, Shame." at the lawmakers. The AFL-CIO has called for a meeting to discuss calling a general strike in Wisconsin.
Earlier in the day Governor Scott Walker had leaked e-mails to Democrats suggesting he was moderating on his position. But Democratic Senators by late in the day put out the words that this was all a ruse. They were right.
The last two days saw Republican legislators being overrun at townhall meetings by angry citizens. One meeting ,which was Rep. Sensenbrenner's congressional townhall meeting, had to be closed down by the Congressman because of the anger over Walker's moves.
A couple of things to note about tonight's bill. First, for the last two weeks, Governor Walker said that the collective bargaining section could not be separated from the budget repair bill. In fact,that is what happened tonight. Which exposes that fraud. Second, the Senate violated its own rules. The bill went to the floor only 14 minutes after passing out of committee and then was passed with no debate. This is where the legal challenge will come. It was never debated.
So for weeks the Beltway pundits have framed this issue as one concerning a budget shortfall in the state and a debate how to resolve it. That should be all gone tomorrow. This was a raw power grab by a Christianist Governor in obedience to his prime funders--the Koch Brothers, who managed to funnel over $1 million to his campaign. Protests are already growing around the new lobby shop set up by the Koch Brothers in Madison to benefit from the goodies being handed out by Walker.
For the full details about Walker's own beliefs how he is divinely inspired ,Progressive Magazine has an account of his full talk to the Christian Businessmen's group. It's a scary read.
Last night Rachel Maddow proclaimed that Wisconsin had won. After all it looked like four Republicans were going to defect from Walker's Budget Repair Bill. In many ways, they did win. A persistant ability to mount demonstrations even in snow storms coupled with the discipline of the Democrats staying away from the state brought forth the real issues at stake. Now with tonight's actions,it will be very tough to view the fake budget battles around the country in the same light. And then we have not had the results of various litigation being brought against both Walker for his statements on the fake Koch phonecall and tonight's travesty.
The Wisconsin struggle highlights the new fascist techniques being used--yes, fascist as a descriptive adjective, not an epithet. Throughout these events, we have seen raw corporate power brought to bear against the average citizens of Wisconsin for no legitimate reason other than ideology. The Budget Repair bill itself manufactured a crisis that had not existed. Unions had already agreed to give-backs and had already surrendered over $1 million the previous year to produce a surplus. Instead, first we had the threat of using force via the National Guard, itself rebellling against the order, then we had the absolute refusal of the Governor even to talk--via the phone, let alone directly--on the budget issues. Then we had the police being called in to disband the demonstrators, which it refused to do. Instead, the police sent a letter congratulating the demonstrators. Then we had police from as far away as 150 miles shipped in to clear the State Capitol. We saw the Assembly pull a late night vote with only a perfunctory announcement. Most Democrats only heard about it by an ad by Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity on the local radio station. Most Democrats didn't have the time to show up and vote. The complete vote of the first part of the Budget Repair Bill lasted only a few minutes. This prompted the first bout of "Shame On You!".
The local press was universally in favor of the demonstrators, even those which had supported Walker. A few local traditions had been violated. The Governor never had mentioned union busting during the campaign or when he announced the bill. He first tried to close the State Capitol, which has been open 24/7 to everyone. Thereby offending the entire state. Then his announcement about the National Guard, followed by his refusal to even talk about the bill. For the first few days, the Governor himself was in hiding,trying to escape press attention. Then for the last two weeks, polling outfits from liberal, moderate to conservative revealed that the vast majority opposed what Walker was doing and affirmed by almost a 2/3rds margin the right to collective bargaining. Still there was no budge. Rep. Obey, a long-time Wisconsin congressman, was prevented from entering the Capitol building, and a Democratic legislator was tackled by temporary police.
The Senate Major Leader, Scott Fitzgerald, said on Fox News today that it wasn't about the budget as all the major media has been saying but about hurting the unions and trying to hinder Barack Obama's chances to win Wisconsin in 2012. Fitzgerald today also wondered aloud how legal the recall statutes were.
It's clear by tonight that the recall campaigns against the eight Republican senators have picked up. At least two Senators will be subject to recall because the number of signatures has been satisfied. The recall of Scott Walker can happen November 3rd of this year.
I never liked Naomi Klein's theory of Shock Therapy for what she terms Crisis Capitalism. It's a nice construct but I'm not satisfied with it--even though I think she's probably right. The full-scale war at the state and national level against average Americans by economic and corporate elites is something that I have never seen as raw as today. You would have to go back to the late 19th century and early 20th to see such raw exercise of financial power by coporations and their ideological companions.
This is not the time or space to go into the long list of these actions throughout the various states. But if you consult blogs about specific states, you will see this is a national epidemic. Buried in these budget bills is a host of social legislation that is neanderthal at best. Ohio's union busting legislation contains prohibitions against same-sex marriage, which is already outlawed in the state. Several states contain provisions to privatize and sell off their prisons. None of these items have anything to do with creating jobs or even the budget shortfalls states are facing.
Now in D.C., the Senate rejected the House budget along straight party lines. With the events in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Florida and New Jersey, the Democratic Party is missing an ample oportunity to tie the Republicans to all these cuts and to all these policies. Every Republican in the House and Senate voted to weaken national security by eliminating funds for monitoring nuclear proliferation,guarding the border, providing adequate foreign assistance; voted to gut the education system by eliminating Pell grants,aid to community colleges, and to critical programs like Head Start; voted to eliminate critical medical care to young women and seniors through cuts to Planned Parenthood and Medicare. And that's just at the national level. At a state level, Republican Governors in Texas, Arizona and Mississippi have taken the lead in cutting Medicaid to the poor and disabled.
All the national polls show the public is against these cuts. Instead, polls show consistently a desire to cut defense spending and to shore up Social Security and Medicare. Also over two-thirds of Americans support the right to collective bargaining for union and public employees.
A few months ago, Mike Malloy half facetiously suggested Barack Obama annouce he was not running again and instead declare open warfare against all the economic forces trying to destroy the country. A leftwing blogger plaintively asked,"Why is Barack Obama allowing this to happen?" At some point, his gloves will have to come off as the essence of America is being attacked virtually everyday by an assortment of thugs,ideologues and corporate toadies.
Personally, I can't not help but viewing this as ending in bloodshed. All the gains in labor in this country came through vicious struggles. A site in West Virginia was declared a national park. There mineworkers from around the country travelled to help out coalminers who were striking. The mine owners fired over a million rounds at the striking miners. The miners lost but eventually they won years later. I see the same happening again today but in more diffuse ways.
The rallies against Florida's Rick Scott and Ohio's John Kasich dwarf any tea party phenomenon. Yet,there is no budge, not step down by the governors. In Montana , a state dominated by conservatives, even there over 71% of the public says that the legsilature is doing a "horrible" job. Extreme right-wing legislators are debatibng nullification laws and outlawing the phenomenon of homosexuality. Yet there is nothing about creating any job.
If the Democrats can't make effective ads against all this, then God help us all. Eemember Karl Rove's Crossroads America ads against all the Democrats in 2010, where he accused them of cutting Medicare. Turnabout is fair.
What is hopeful is that our progressives have finally accepted trade unions. The alienation of the New Left from unions that started in the 1960s seems to be about over. There is more an attempt to form broader coalitions to push for change or simply to preserve what remains.
We lost a decade with the last Administration. With the world economy the way it is America can not afford another lost decade. If the events in the states continue, we will lose more than a decade. Basically,we will have become the underdeveloped country some ideologues have always wanted.
Earlier in the day Governor Scott Walker had leaked e-mails to Democrats suggesting he was moderating on his position. But Democratic Senators by late in the day put out the words that this was all a ruse. They were right.
The last two days saw Republican legislators being overrun at townhall meetings by angry citizens. One meeting ,which was Rep. Sensenbrenner's congressional townhall meeting, had to be closed down by the Congressman because of the anger over Walker's moves.
A couple of things to note about tonight's bill. First, for the last two weeks, Governor Walker said that the collective bargaining section could not be separated from the budget repair bill. In fact,that is what happened tonight. Which exposes that fraud. Second, the Senate violated its own rules. The bill went to the floor only 14 minutes after passing out of committee and then was passed with no debate. This is where the legal challenge will come. It was never debated.
So for weeks the Beltway pundits have framed this issue as one concerning a budget shortfall in the state and a debate how to resolve it. That should be all gone tomorrow. This was a raw power grab by a Christianist Governor in obedience to his prime funders--the Koch Brothers, who managed to funnel over $1 million to his campaign. Protests are already growing around the new lobby shop set up by the Koch Brothers in Madison to benefit from the goodies being handed out by Walker.
For the full details about Walker's own beliefs how he is divinely inspired ,Progressive Magazine has an account of his full talk to the Christian Businessmen's group. It's a scary read.
Last night Rachel Maddow proclaimed that Wisconsin had won. After all it looked like four Republicans were going to defect from Walker's Budget Repair Bill. In many ways, they did win. A persistant ability to mount demonstrations even in snow storms coupled with the discipline of the Democrats staying away from the state brought forth the real issues at stake. Now with tonight's actions,it will be very tough to view the fake budget battles around the country in the same light. And then we have not had the results of various litigation being brought against both Walker for his statements on the fake Koch phonecall and tonight's travesty.
The Wisconsin struggle highlights the new fascist techniques being used--yes, fascist as a descriptive adjective, not an epithet. Throughout these events, we have seen raw corporate power brought to bear against the average citizens of Wisconsin for no legitimate reason other than ideology. The Budget Repair bill itself manufactured a crisis that had not existed. Unions had already agreed to give-backs and had already surrendered over $1 million the previous year to produce a surplus. Instead, first we had the threat of using force via the National Guard, itself rebellling against the order, then we had the absolute refusal of the Governor even to talk--via the phone, let alone directly--on the budget issues. Then we had the police being called in to disband the demonstrators, which it refused to do. Instead, the police sent a letter congratulating the demonstrators. Then we had police from as far away as 150 miles shipped in to clear the State Capitol. We saw the Assembly pull a late night vote with only a perfunctory announcement. Most Democrats only heard about it by an ad by Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity on the local radio station. Most Democrats didn't have the time to show up and vote. The complete vote of the first part of the Budget Repair Bill lasted only a few minutes. This prompted the first bout of "Shame On You!".
The local press was universally in favor of the demonstrators, even those which had supported Walker. A few local traditions had been violated. The Governor never had mentioned union busting during the campaign or when he announced the bill. He first tried to close the State Capitol, which has been open 24/7 to everyone. Thereby offending the entire state. Then his announcement about the National Guard, followed by his refusal to even talk about the bill. For the first few days, the Governor himself was in hiding,trying to escape press attention. Then for the last two weeks, polling outfits from liberal, moderate to conservative revealed that the vast majority opposed what Walker was doing and affirmed by almost a 2/3rds margin the right to collective bargaining. Still there was no budge. Rep. Obey, a long-time Wisconsin congressman, was prevented from entering the Capitol building, and a Democratic legislator was tackled by temporary police.
The Senate Major Leader, Scott Fitzgerald, said on Fox News today that it wasn't about the budget as all the major media has been saying but about hurting the unions and trying to hinder Barack Obama's chances to win Wisconsin in 2012. Fitzgerald today also wondered aloud how legal the recall statutes were.
It's clear by tonight that the recall campaigns against the eight Republican senators have picked up. At least two Senators will be subject to recall because the number of signatures has been satisfied. The recall of Scott Walker can happen November 3rd of this year.
I never liked Naomi Klein's theory of Shock Therapy for what she terms Crisis Capitalism. It's a nice construct but I'm not satisfied with it--even though I think she's probably right. The full-scale war at the state and national level against average Americans by economic and corporate elites is something that I have never seen as raw as today. You would have to go back to the late 19th century and early 20th to see such raw exercise of financial power by coporations and their ideological companions.
This is not the time or space to go into the long list of these actions throughout the various states. But if you consult blogs about specific states, you will see this is a national epidemic. Buried in these budget bills is a host of social legislation that is neanderthal at best. Ohio's union busting legislation contains prohibitions against same-sex marriage, which is already outlawed in the state. Several states contain provisions to privatize and sell off their prisons. None of these items have anything to do with creating jobs or even the budget shortfalls states are facing.
Now in D.C., the Senate rejected the House budget along straight party lines. With the events in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Florida and New Jersey, the Democratic Party is missing an ample oportunity to tie the Republicans to all these cuts and to all these policies. Every Republican in the House and Senate voted to weaken national security by eliminating funds for monitoring nuclear proliferation,guarding the border, providing adequate foreign assistance; voted to gut the education system by eliminating Pell grants,aid to community colleges, and to critical programs like Head Start; voted to eliminate critical medical care to young women and seniors through cuts to Planned Parenthood and Medicare. And that's just at the national level. At a state level, Republican Governors in Texas, Arizona and Mississippi have taken the lead in cutting Medicaid to the poor and disabled.
All the national polls show the public is against these cuts. Instead, polls show consistently a desire to cut defense spending and to shore up Social Security and Medicare. Also over two-thirds of Americans support the right to collective bargaining for union and public employees.
A few months ago, Mike Malloy half facetiously suggested Barack Obama annouce he was not running again and instead declare open warfare against all the economic forces trying to destroy the country. A leftwing blogger plaintively asked,"Why is Barack Obama allowing this to happen?" At some point, his gloves will have to come off as the essence of America is being attacked virtually everyday by an assortment of thugs,ideologues and corporate toadies.
Personally, I can't not help but viewing this as ending in bloodshed. All the gains in labor in this country came through vicious struggles. A site in West Virginia was declared a national park. There mineworkers from around the country travelled to help out coalminers who were striking. The mine owners fired over a million rounds at the striking miners. The miners lost but eventually they won years later. I see the same happening again today but in more diffuse ways.
The rallies against Florida's Rick Scott and Ohio's John Kasich dwarf any tea party phenomenon. Yet,there is no budge, not step down by the governors. In Montana , a state dominated by conservatives, even there over 71% of the public says that the legsilature is doing a "horrible" job. Extreme right-wing legislators are debatibng nullification laws and outlawing the phenomenon of homosexuality. Yet there is nothing about creating any job.
If the Democrats can't make effective ads against all this, then God help us all. Eemember Karl Rove's Crossroads America ads against all the Democrats in 2010, where he accused them of cutting Medicare. Turnabout is fair.
What is hopeful is that our progressives have finally accepted trade unions. The alienation of the New Left from unions that started in the 1960s seems to be about over. There is more an attempt to form broader coalitions to push for change or simply to preserve what remains.
We lost a decade with the last Administration. With the world economy the way it is America can not afford another lost decade. If the events in the states continue, we will lose more than a decade. Basically,we will have become the underdeveloped country some ideologues have always wanted.
Isn't It Grand, Isn't It Fine
If you want a good overview of the politics going on in the states right now, Rachel Maddow is in a groove. Last night's show highlighted the bizarre legislation in Michigan. Governor Snyder, who had vowed not to be a partisan,has raised taxes on the middle class and seniors, while cutting corporate taxes. His budget proposal would impoverish local and city governments. Not to worry, the Governor would be allowed to declare a "fiscal crisis" and appoint an overseer or corporation to run the beleaguered municipality. It's the most recent version of creating "Company Towns". The corporation or overseer then could remove from office any democratically elected officials. Sounds a little unconstitutional but that was in the old days.
To vent, I listen to Mike Malloy Truthseeker on progressive radio stations. The other night he raised an issue about Wisconsin that totally escaped me. Since his broadcast, leftwing blogs have picked it up. Scott Walker, the governor, talks to Jesus Christ every day in the morning and Walker says that Jesus tells him what to do--literally. Jesus Christ told him when he was a younger man to get a job at IBM even though he didn't want to. The same applies to his abandoning his last campaign for governor--Jesus told him to quit. The son of a Baptist minister Scott Walker revealed these sensitive moments to the Christian Businessmen's Group. He is only doing on the budget bill what Jesus wants. Interesting, however, that all the Christian denominations have come out against his budger repair bill. How does this square with what Jesus has been telling him?
This Saturday Wisconsin farmers will be riding their tractors and combines into Madison to protest the Budget Repair Bill. It's not union solidarity we're seeing here--well,some of it is. The farmers are pissed that the bill repeals a state-run insurance scheme that was created by progressive Republicans--remember them--during the insurance frauds of the early twentieth century. The plan pays for itself and has no budgetary consequences. Older farmers depend on this program. The other bone the farmers have is that their wives supplement the family income and keep the small farms going by being teachers or nurses. The budget repair bill would lead to greater unemployment.
The Republicans don't seem to think the Wisconsin recall laws are legal. Interesting. Efforts to mount recall campaigns are picking up steam and there are enough signatures to recall at least one Republican. Eight are targeted by this campaign.
Reversing Wisconsin's entire history, Republican legislators passed a law that regulates who can come in and out of the Capitol building and it warrants metal detactors and the usual security apparatus. To outsiders this would seem normal but it is a source of pride to people in the state that Wisconsin keeps its capitol open to everyone 24/7.
It turns out that the report of some $7 million in damages to the Capitol was bogus and put out by the Right to defame the demonstrators. Anyway the Painters' Union offered to repair any damage done for free.
Americans for Prosperity, the Koch-funded astroturf organization run by Abramoff's old lobbying buddy, held a bus tour of the state. Joe the Plumber, who is not named Joe nor is he a Plumber, asked the people of Wisconsin whether they sided with socialist America or the real America. The bus tour topped out at 600 in Madison, not a great showing for teabag nation.
Felon Rick Scott,Governor of Florida, managed to win a bipartisan court case that challenged his refusal to accept federal funds for the high-speed rail project from Tampa to Orlando, a project that has been on the drawing boards for a decade. Scott also managed to alienate the entire state with his budget address. As Rachel Maddow has pointed out twice so far, he's cutting $1.75 billion from public education and slashing property and corporate taxes by $1.68 billion, which will mean squat to the deficit. Demonstrators at the capitol are now far outdrawing the past teabag crowds by several thousand.
The first Iowa Republican events have started. Five would-be Presidential contenders spoke before a Faith Forum. New favorite Buddy Roemer, former Democratic senator and Governor from Louisiana, spoke about faith and didn't address his previous three marriages. But Newt was there railing against all the secular socialists in the Obama Administration. In a quiet moment, Newt talked to a Christian radio station and admitted that he did let his wallace flop out, as Captain Beefhart would say. Newt admitted he was working so hard to save the nation that he slipped and committed adultery. I'm sure Callista was pleased to hear she was an accident in his life. Unlike Scott Walker,Newt speaks with God and graciously God forgave him his adultery and rewarded him with a wonderful marriage. So if God forgave him, then there's no problem. As Newt said, if his past mattered, he would be irrelevant now but since the future is at stake then all bets are off.
Andrew Sullivan in his Daily Dish opined two days ago that the Republican Party no longer exists. He gave a detailed taxonomy of the fragments of the Republicans and the conservative movement and I agree with him. Proof of this is the sad spectacle of Dick Lugar now coming around to accepting the House budget proposal even though he had openly opposed them. Lugar is frightened of a teabag primary. Also only 33% of Maine Republicans now believe that Olympia Snowe should be renominated--this about a woman who won with over 70% of the vote last time. There really is no there there.
Dana Milbank said that John Boehner is using Richard Nixon's Mad Bomber strategy on the budget, using the insanity of the House proposals to muscle greater concessions from the Senate and the White House. I prefer the incompetence argument and that he has no control over the House Republicans. Hapless Harry Reid is miffed that he thought he had a budget deal with the Republicans only to see Mitch McConnell walk away. The Democrats today are trying to force a vote on the House budget proposal to get sitting Republicans to go on record for cuts to the most basic of programs.
Rep. Peter King is holding his I Hate Islam hearings on the House side. The irony of this is that when Ronald Reagan was going to speak at the Nassau Coliseum in new York the Secret Service put King on a watch list because of his fervent support of the IRA, who were then at their bombing best. King is trying to demonstrate that the Muslim community is not cooperating with law enforcement authorities. Unfortunately for him, Duke has done a study and the FBI confirms that over half the terrorists suspects are picked up on tips from the Muslim community. However, this doesn't deter anyone. One witness tried to implicate Rep. Ellison, the only Muslim in the House, and the Democratic Party in aiding terrorism.
The off shoot of this Islamophobia is the resurgent attacks on Sikhs, who have nothing to do with Islam. After 9-11, Sikhs here in Virginia and in Texas were killed as a reaction to the bombings. Now this has started up again in southern California. At Divinity School, one of the fun things was to see Sikhs unravel their turbans and after cleaning,hang them down five flight of stairs.
With the war continuing in Libya, Newt Gingrich appeared on Fox News as "a friend" to announce that if he were President he would have created a No-Fly Zone last night. This is the type of rhetoric which got us into boatloads of trouble the last administration. As Secretary of Defense Gates pointed out, creating a No-Fly Zone entails preliminary bombing and disabling Libya's air force--which in former days was considered an act of war.
While President Obama continues calls for Muammar Qaddafhi to step down,Michael Scheuer, whose Bin Laden book I liked, reverted to his old obnoxious self and called Obama a "racist". He said that Obama was like "Kipling and Woodrow Wilson" in calling for democratic cghange in Libya. Scheuer said that Qaddafhi represented "zero" threat to the stability of the region. But only days before in a Washington Post op-ed he said that the unrest in the Arab world benefited Al Qaeda.
I don't know why organizations such as Planned Parenthood and NPR fall for the stunts of conservopunk Jim O'Keefe. NPR's chairperson resigned today after a video surfaced that their major fund-raising believed that the teabaggers were racist and maybe NPR was better off without federal funding.
President Obama's decision on Gitmo was terrible, even though understandable. Under the last Defense Bill, Democrats and Republicans prohibited Gitmo detainees from being tried in civil courts or if innocent being transferred to another country. Obama's decision to reinstate the flawed military commission process is being challenged by House Republicans, who want to eliminate the review process being proposed. What this all this means is that the United States has abandoned its own history and now accepts holding people indefinitely without trial. At issue are 45 cases, which could not be tried because we tortured the detainees and their testimony would not be admissable in a court of law.
But have good cheer, Canadian professors are teaching Omar Kadr at Gitmo so he won't go home hating our guts. They have developed a home schooling program for the child soldier who has been languishing there all these many years.
Meanwhile Bradley Manning still sleeps naked. Having been in solitary for the last seven months and only charged--some 59 of them--last week, Manning has been subjected to sleep deprivation and having to stand at attention naked at the morning roll calls. I bet money on the fact that he did not leak the diplomatic posts to Wikileaks. He did leak the footage of our armed forces killing civilians and reporters with gunships as well as the Iraq and Afghanistan files. Basically, his treatment is to send us and everyone in the military a lesson. But it might have been nice if the military had followed some rudimentary legal guidelines.
Oh by the way, Michelle Bachmann will decided whether she's going to run for President in June. Sarah Palin is going on a Faith tour and is scheduled to miss the first real Republican debate at the Reagan Center. The Donald really does have people in Iowa scouting out the feasibility of a Presidential run. While the faith gang was in Iowa, Ron Paul was running from town to town. This suggests that the Love Revolution might be back.
Client Number 9--Eliot Spitzer--is rumored to be exploring a run for the Mayor of New York.
To vent, I listen to Mike Malloy Truthseeker on progressive radio stations. The other night he raised an issue about Wisconsin that totally escaped me. Since his broadcast, leftwing blogs have picked it up. Scott Walker, the governor, talks to Jesus Christ every day in the morning and Walker says that Jesus tells him what to do--literally. Jesus Christ told him when he was a younger man to get a job at IBM even though he didn't want to. The same applies to his abandoning his last campaign for governor--Jesus told him to quit. The son of a Baptist minister Scott Walker revealed these sensitive moments to the Christian Businessmen's Group. He is only doing on the budget bill what Jesus wants. Interesting, however, that all the Christian denominations have come out against his budger repair bill. How does this square with what Jesus has been telling him?
This Saturday Wisconsin farmers will be riding their tractors and combines into Madison to protest the Budget Repair Bill. It's not union solidarity we're seeing here--well,some of it is. The farmers are pissed that the bill repeals a state-run insurance scheme that was created by progressive Republicans--remember them--during the insurance frauds of the early twentieth century. The plan pays for itself and has no budgetary consequences. Older farmers depend on this program. The other bone the farmers have is that their wives supplement the family income and keep the small farms going by being teachers or nurses. The budget repair bill would lead to greater unemployment.
The Republicans don't seem to think the Wisconsin recall laws are legal. Interesting. Efforts to mount recall campaigns are picking up steam and there are enough signatures to recall at least one Republican. Eight are targeted by this campaign.
Reversing Wisconsin's entire history, Republican legislators passed a law that regulates who can come in and out of the Capitol building and it warrants metal detactors and the usual security apparatus. To outsiders this would seem normal but it is a source of pride to people in the state that Wisconsin keeps its capitol open to everyone 24/7.
It turns out that the report of some $7 million in damages to the Capitol was bogus and put out by the Right to defame the demonstrators. Anyway the Painters' Union offered to repair any damage done for free.
Americans for Prosperity, the Koch-funded astroturf organization run by Abramoff's old lobbying buddy, held a bus tour of the state. Joe the Plumber, who is not named Joe nor is he a Plumber, asked the people of Wisconsin whether they sided with socialist America or the real America. The bus tour topped out at 600 in Madison, not a great showing for teabag nation.
Felon Rick Scott,Governor of Florida, managed to win a bipartisan court case that challenged his refusal to accept federal funds for the high-speed rail project from Tampa to Orlando, a project that has been on the drawing boards for a decade. Scott also managed to alienate the entire state with his budget address. As Rachel Maddow has pointed out twice so far, he's cutting $1.75 billion from public education and slashing property and corporate taxes by $1.68 billion, which will mean squat to the deficit. Demonstrators at the capitol are now far outdrawing the past teabag crowds by several thousand.
The first Iowa Republican events have started. Five would-be Presidential contenders spoke before a Faith Forum. New favorite Buddy Roemer, former Democratic senator and Governor from Louisiana, spoke about faith and didn't address his previous three marriages. But Newt was there railing against all the secular socialists in the Obama Administration. In a quiet moment, Newt talked to a Christian radio station and admitted that he did let his wallace flop out, as Captain Beefhart would say. Newt admitted he was working so hard to save the nation that he slipped and committed adultery. I'm sure Callista was pleased to hear she was an accident in his life. Unlike Scott Walker,Newt speaks with God and graciously God forgave him his adultery and rewarded him with a wonderful marriage. So if God forgave him, then there's no problem. As Newt said, if his past mattered, he would be irrelevant now but since the future is at stake then all bets are off.
Andrew Sullivan in his Daily Dish opined two days ago that the Republican Party no longer exists. He gave a detailed taxonomy of the fragments of the Republicans and the conservative movement and I agree with him. Proof of this is the sad spectacle of Dick Lugar now coming around to accepting the House budget proposal even though he had openly opposed them. Lugar is frightened of a teabag primary. Also only 33% of Maine Republicans now believe that Olympia Snowe should be renominated--this about a woman who won with over 70% of the vote last time. There really is no there there.
Dana Milbank said that John Boehner is using Richard Nixon's Mad Bomber strategy on the budget, using the insanity of the House proposals to muscle greater concessions from the Senate and the White House. I prefer the incompetence argument and that he has no control over the House Republicans. Hapless Harry Reid is miffed that he thought he had a budget deal with the Republicans only to see Mitch McConnell walk away. The Democrats today are trying to force a vote on the House budget proposal to get sitting Republicans to go on record for cuts to the most basic of programs.
Rep. Peter King is holding his I Hate Islam hearings on the House side. The irony of this is that when Ronald Reagan was going to speak at the Nassau Coliseum in new York the Secret Service put King on a watch list because of his fervent support of the IRA, who were then at their bombing best. King is trying to demonstrate that the Muslim community is not cooperating with law enforcement authorities. Unfortunately for him, Duke has done a study and the FBI confirms that over half the terrorists suspects are picked up on tips from the Muslim community. However, this doesn't deter anyone. One witness tried to implicate Rep. Ellison, the only Muslim in the House, and the Democratic Party in aiding terrorism.
The off shoot of this Islamophobia is the resurgent attacks on Sikhs, who have nothing to do with Islam. After 9-11, Sikhs here in Virginia and in Texas were killed as a reaction to the bombings. Now this has started up again in southern California. At Divinity School, one of the fun things was to see Sikhs unravel their turbans and after cleaning,hang them down five flight of stairs.
With the war continuing in Libya, Newt Gingrich appeared on Fox News as "a friend" to announce that if he were President he would have created a No-Fly Zone last night. This is the type of rhetoric which got us into boatloads of trouble the last administration. As Secretary of Defense Gates pointed out, creating a No-Fly Zone entails preliminary bombing and disabling Libya's air force--which in former days was considered an act of war.
While President Obama continues calls for Muammar Qaddafhi to step down,Michael Scheuer, whose Bin Laden book I liked, reverted to his old obnoxious self and called Obama a "racist". He said that Obama was like "Kipling and Woodrow Wilson" in calling for democratic cghange in Libya. Scheuer said that Qaddafhi represented "zero" threat to the stability of the region. But only days before in a Washington Post op-ed he said that the unrest in the Arab world benefited Al Qaeda.
I don't know why organizations such as Planned Parenthood and NPR fall for the stunts of conservopunk Jim O'Keefe. NPR's chairperson resigned today after a video surfaced that their major fund-raising believed that the teabaggers were racist and maybe NPR was better off without federal funding.
President Obama's decision on Gitmo was terrible, even though understandable. Under the last Defense Bill, Democrats and Republicans prohibited Gitmo detainees from being tried in civil courts or if innocent being transferred to another country. Obama's decision to reinstate the flawed military commission process is being challenged by House Republicans, who want to eliminate the review process being proposed. What this all this means is that the United States has abandoned its own history and now accepts holding people indefinitely without trial. At issue are 45 cases, which could not be tried because we tortured the detainees and their testimony would not be admissable in a court of law.
But have good cheer, Canadian professors are teaching Omar Kadr at Gitmo so he won't go home hating our guts. They have developed a home schooling program for the child soldier who has been languishing there all these many years.
Meanwhile Bradley Manning still sleeps naked. Having been in solitary for the last seven months and only charged--some 59 of them--last week, Manning has been subjected to sleep deprivation and having to stand at attention naked at the morning roll calls. I bet money on the fact that he did not leak the diplomatic posts to Wikileaks. He did leak the footage of our armed forces killing civilians and reporters with gunships as well as the Iraq and Afghanistan files. Basically, his treatment is to send us and everyone in the military a lesson. But it might have been nice if the military had followed some rudimentary legal guidelines.
Oh by the way, Michelle Bachmann will decided whether she's going to run for President in June. Sarah Palin is going on a Faith tour and is scheduled to miss the first real Republican debate at the Reagan Center. The Donald really does have people in Iowa scouting out the feasibility of a Presidential run. While the faith gang was in Iowa, Ron Paul was running from town to town. This suggests that the Love Revolution might be back.
Client Number 9--Eliot Spitzer--is rumored to be exploring a run for the Mayor of New York.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Ian's Pizza and Tom Morello in Wisconsin
It has not been confirmed that Ian's Pizza in Madison, Wisconsin received an order for a pizza from Egypt for the protestors. But they did get orders from 38 states and over a dozen countries for the pizzas in solidarity with the demonstrators.
But Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine did get a letter from one of the leaders of the Egyptian uprising in support of the Wisconsin demonstrators. Last I watched he read the letter twice --once outside with the demonstrators and again inside the capital rotunda.
Rasmussen thought he was quick to produce a poll which showed support for Governor Walkers' position against union. Unfortunately, this was quickly debunked by an AFL-CIO poll that showed 67% support for public workers,62% for the demonstrators and 59% for unions in the state. Greenberg polling's results mirrored those of the union polling.
The Tea Party Express issued a memo to members to try and infiltrate the demonstrators and alter the "optics" of the rallies by appearing to make provocative statements to the press and taking actions to bring criticism on the demonstrators.
This must have been a raging success because the State Police wrote a thank-you letter to the demonstrators for their conduct and stated there had not been a single arrest the whole week while they were protesting.
Our own mainstream press has been slowly getting around to understanding that this demonstration is against union-busting and that it's not about budgets. The Diane Rehm show had a discussion on NPR yesterday with a CATO Institute writer, the economist for the AFL-CIO and the head of ASCFME. It was no contest--the CATO institute guy kept referring to himself as working in the private sector--the non-profit--and claimed that public workers earned more than workers in the private sector. He also claimed that public workers were the "new elite" of the country with a monopoly. Even the callers to the show didn't buy his argument. The AFL-CIO economist just eviscerated his arguments and raised the issue of who did create the deficits in the country. In my mind, the argument was won by the President of ASCFME who reminded the audience that the average pension of one of his union members is a whopping $19,000.
Even the Washington Post and New York Times finally caught on to the Wisconsin scam. And scam it is. Buried in the same budget bill is a little clause that the Governor can sell its heating and cooling plants to the private sector on a no-bid basis. Bubbling up from the leftwing blogs was an analysis of how this was tailored made for the Koch Brothers, who already own alot of the state. Now this story has moved to the Huffington Post and hopefully will make the mainstream media. Don't hold your breath.
As I noted around election time, Walker won because of a concentrated voter suppression campaign run by the tea party. Also in this session's bills are attempts to tightened the requirements for Voter IDs so as to further restrict the voting base. Wisconsin had started a same-day registration process ,which also will be rescinded.
Walker, who had a whopping 41% approval rate just after the election, also wants to throw 1.5 million off Medicaid and the programs like Badgercare, etc.
What Wisconsin highlights in dramatic form is the New Republican agenda. Even a Walker friendly newspaper commented that the whole deficit could have been wiped out with an additional 6 cent a keg tax on beer! Instead, this is the full scale ideological shock therapy. If we were talking about states like California with massive budget issues, the situation would be more confused as such a state would be fighting for its financial survival. But Wisconsin is not. Walker did the nation a great favor by letting it all hang out. This has fueled the labor demonstrations in Indiana and Ohio.
What's interesting is that newly elected Michigan governor Snyder, a Republican, has been forced to make at least two speeches saying he would not do the same thing. Like-wise Chris Chrissie of New Jersey faced with a Democratic legislature has also said he would not engage in union-busting.
While the Wisconsin demonstrators have captured the imagination of the nation, let's be honest--Democrats and Independents together compose an overwhelming majority in the state but they did not come out to vote in 2010 like the Republicans and the results we see today. You get the government you don't vote for. Now all the non-Voters are responding to the disaster they allowed to happen.
But Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine did get a letter from one of the leaders of the Egyptian uprising in support of the Wisconsin demonstrators. Last I watched he read the letter twice --once outside with the demonstrators and again inside the capital rotunda.
Rasmussen thought he was quick to produce a poll which showed support for Governor Walkers' position against union. Unfortunately, this was quickly debunked by an AFL-CIO poll that showed 67% support for public workers,62% for the demonstrators and 59% for unions in the state. Greenberg polling's results mirrored those of the union polling.
The Tea Party Express issued a memo to members to try and infiltrate the demonstrators and alter the "optics" of the rallies by appearing to make provocative statements to the press and taking actions to bring criticism on the demonstrators.
This must have been a raging success because the State Police wrote a thank-you letter to the demonstrators for their conduct and stated there had not been a single arrest the whole week while they were protesting.
Our own mainstream press has been slowly getting around to understanding that this demonstration is against union-busting and that it's not about budgets. The Diane Rehm show had a discussion on NPR yesterday with a CATO Institute writer, the economist for the AFL-CIO and the head of ASCFME. It was no contest--the CATO institute guy kept referring to himself as working in the private sector--the non-profit--and claimed that public workers earned more than workers in the private sector. He also claimed that public workers were the "new elite" of the country with a monopoly. Even the callers to the show didn't buy his argument. The AFL-CIO economist just eviscerated his arguments and raised the issue of who did create the deficits in the country. In my mind, the argument was won by the President of ASCFME who reminded the audience that the average pension of one of his union members is a whopping $19,000.
Even the Washington Post and New York Times finally caught on to the Wisconsin scam. And scam it is. Buried in the same budget bill is a little clause that the Governor can sell its heating and cooling plants to the private sector on a no-bid basis. Bubbling up from the leftwing blogs was an analysis of how this was tailored made for the Koch Brothers, who already own alot of the state. Now this story has moved to the Huffington Post and hopefully will make the mainstream media. Don't hold your breath.
As I noted around election time, Walker won because of a concentrated voter suppression campaign run by the tea party. Also in this session's bills are attempts to tightened the requirements for Voter IDs so as to further restrict the voting base. Wisconsin had started a same-day registration process ,which also will be rescinded.
Walker, who had a whopping 41% approval rate just after the election, also wants to throw 1.5 million off Medicaid and the programs like Badgercare, etc.
What Wisconsin highlights in dramatic form is the New Republican agenda. Even a Walker friendly newspaper commented that the whole deficit could have been wiped out with an additional 6 cent a keg tax on beer! Instead, this is the full scale ideological shock therapy. If we were talking about states like California with massive budget issues, the situation would be more confused as such a state would be fighting for its financial survival. But Wisconsin is not. Walker did the nation a great favor by letting it all hang out. This has fueled the labor demonstrations in Indiana and Ohio.
What's interesting is that newly elected Michigan governor Snyder, a Republican, has been forced to make at least two speeches saying he would not do the same thing. Like-wise Chris Chrissie of New Jersey faced with a Democratic legislature has also said he would not engage in union-busting.
While the Wisconsin demonstrators have captured the imagination of the nation, let's be honest--Democrats and Independents together compose an overwhelming majority in the state but they did not come out to vote in 2010 like the Republicans and the results we see today. You get the government you don't vote for. Now all the non-Voters are responding to the disaster they allowed to happen.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Kill The Bill
Still early afternoon on the East Coast but everyone and their grandmother is pouring into Wisconsin to show solidarity with the public service workers. Joe Scarborough summed up the conservative sentiment calling the workers greedy freeloaders on Morning Joe. Fox national news is complaining about the decorum of the demonstrators in sharp contrast to the teabaggers they supported.
But the local Fox affiliate ran a poll rthat showed 55% of Wisconsin voters support the demonstrators and only 40% are against.
Those teabaggers who still support the corporations promise to turn out 4,500 tomorrow in support of Government Walker. Undoubtedly, they will receive extensive coverage by the media.
If you are going to play such high stakes poker, it's best not to let your opponents know what you did. Governor Scott Walker has been caught out even more on his fiscal wizardry.
One Wisconsin Now has issued a statement analyzing the known Walker tax breaks to the wealthy. They admit that they do not have all the additional tax breaks and loopholes he's added since.
This is what Governor Walker has promised so far and the total is for two years:
*$287 million from an income tax cut to the top 1% earners, more than $225,000.
*$187 million from reopening the "Las Vegas Loophole", which allows multi-state businesses to shleter their tax obligations from Wisconsin by opening "phantom" offices.
*920 million by sheltering assets of the wealthiest citizens from a tax on all retirement income.
*243 million from changes to the capital gains reduction.
$1.032 billion--a transfer of $1,032 billion from the general fund to the transportion fund, which instantly creates the same amount of debt in the general fund.
$892 million--Phase out hospital assessment.
$159 million--end the estate tax.
$35 million--Eliminates the tax on private Health Savings Accounts.
The Total Cost: $3.8 billion.
In addition, Walker wants to cut manufacturing taxes, eliminate the corporate tax for the first two years of operations; and reduce small business taxes by 20 percent.
To pay for all this, Walker wants to cut 400,000 children and working families from Badgercare, which are health services for the poorer citizens of the state. Walker will have to cut some $6.5 billion from education, health care, police and fire protection in order to cover all his tax promises and cover any deficit.
So now you know the motivation.
There is some confusion now about whether the state police refused to go after the Democratic Senate leader. Reports suggest they refused and the Governor ordered the National Guard to carry out that duty.
It's fascinating that a state known for its progressive politics should now become the center for the rebirth of progressive politics in the country. This is reminiscent of the early days of union organizing during the age of the Robber Barons, except for the violence.
But the local Fox affiliate ran a poll rthat showed 55% of Wisconsin voters support the demonstrators and only 40% are against.
Those teabaggers who still support the corporations promise to turn out 4,500 tomorrow in support of Government Walker. Undoubtedly, they will receive extensive coverage by the media.
If you are going to play such high stakes poker, it's best not to let your opponents know what you did. Governor Scott Walker has been caught out even more on his fiscal wizardry.
One Wisconsin Now has issued a statement analyzing the known Walker tax breaks to the wealthy. They admit that they do not have all the additional tax breaks and loopholes he's added since.
This is what Governor Walker has promised so far and the total is for two years:
*$287 million from an income tax cut to the top 1% earners, more than $225,000.
*$187 million from reopening the "Las Vegas Loophole", which allows multi-state businesses to shleter their tax obligations from Wisconsin by opening "phantom" offices.
*920 million by sheltering assets of the wealthiest citizens from a tax on all retirement income.
*243 million from changes to the capital gains reduction.
$1.032 billion--a transfer of $1,032 billion from the general fund to the transportion fund, which instantly creates the same amount of debt in the general fund.
$892 million--Phase out hospital assessment.
$159 million--end the estate tax.
$35 million--Eliminates the tax on private Health Savings Accounts.
The Total Cost: $3.8 billion.
In addition, Walker wants to cut manufacturing taxes, eliminate the corporate tax for the first two years of operations; and reduce small business taxes by 20 percent.
To pay for all this, Walker wants to cut 400,000 children and working families from Badgercare, which are health services for the poorer citizens of the state. Walker will have to cut some $6.5 billion from education, health care, police and fire protection in order to cover all his tax promises and cover any deficit.
So now you know the motivation.
There is some confusion now about whether the state police refused to go after the Democratic Senate leader. Reports suggest they refused and the Governor ordered the National Guard to carry out that duty.
It's fascinating that a state known for its progressive politics should now become the center for the rebirth of progressive politics in the country. This is reminiscent of the early days of union organizing during the age of the Robber Barons, except for the violence.
"Won't you come to Wisconsin?"
So saith Governor Scott Walker to the Democratic legislators who fled the state to deprive the Republicans of the necessary quorum to pass their union-busting bill. The Governor, who finally surfaced yesterday from seclusion, said today that
he will not be "bullied." This is the guy who threatened to mobilize the National Guard to suppress public workers even though nobody was doing nothing.
The Governor had another bad day yesterday when the Archbishop of Wisconsin came out in support of the demonstrators and issued a statement that union workers should not be "marginalized." It got even worst when the Green Bay Packers put their support for the demonstrators in writing--a second shot at the Governor. To top off the day, local tea party members ran ads apologizing to the citizens of Wisconsin for being dupes of corporations. That didn't stop the Koch-funded groups Americans for Prosperity and the Club of Growth advertising they had busses for counter-protestors. But they were swamped by the state-wide demonstrations for the public service workers.
Today might be even worse if Marquette University makes a statement on why it expelled the Governor--for plagarism
More details on how the Governor ginned up the fiscal crisis are emerging. Basically, there isn't one. But one neat trick was that he said that if the public workers don't take a pay and benefit cut then 6,000 jobs will be lost. Isn't it a coincidence that the number he uses is the same number of jobs lost when he turned down the high-speed rail money from the Obama Administration?
Wisconsin Fiscal Bureau, their CBO, revised their budget projections for the state. By June 2011, it will net a surplus of $56 million and they had projected a $202.8 million surplus over the next two years, except this number has been diminished because the Governor gave $140 million in tax breaks to multinational corporations. This only got state-owned businesses steamed since they were excluded.
Our great news media has neglected to inform the public that the state workers have not had contracts for years.
As demonstrations have spread throughout the state and not just in Madison, it's useful to remember why the whole state is in revolt.
The so-called Stop-gap Budget Repair Bill prohibits any union representation or collective bargaining for most state workers. As Rachel Maddow pointed out yesterday, the workers who were excluded were those like the police and firefighters who backed Walker in his election campaign. But even the firefighters support the demonstrators and ushered them into the State House with fifes and drums.
Here's why public service employees find the bill so disturbing:
*If union representation is allowed at all, it will be limited to bargaining for wages. The Senate each year will set the mandatory limit for these wages.
*Union dues will no longer be collected through payroll deductions. This would force unions to collect from each individual. This tactic has been used in other states to gut unions.
*Unions would have to be recertified every year.
*Not just state employees are affected by the bill, but all city,town, village and county employees in the State of Wisconsin. This is the part of the bill, which sparked demonstrations throughout the state.
*There will not be collective bargaining over insurance (which will be replaced by a high-deductible junk health insurance), benefits, pensions,holidays or personal days, vacation,working condtions, adequate staffing, class sizes, worker safety issues, mandatory overtime, shift selection, etc.
As I write this, Wisconsin State Police have caught wind that one Democratic legislators may have slipped home from Illinois last night. They are en route to try and capture him and bring him back to Madison so that the quorum would exist.
President Obama has stayed away from the pay and benefit aspect of the debate but has strongly come out against the aspect of the bill that is aimed at union-busting. Basically, the Washington reaction is split along party lines. Gentleman John Boehner made a statement in defense of Scott Walker. Strangely, Congressman Pat Ryan , Republican of Wisconsin, likened the demonstrations to what was happening in Egypt. So I guess he agrees with the demonstrators' signs calling on Hosni Walker to Step Aside.
Glenn Beck said that the unions, like the Muslim Brotherhood,are agitating for a new world order. The sign post up ahead...
Today Richard Trumpka will be leading a rally in Madison. But I doubt whether Trumpka can beat the cool Teamster semi that showed up with a flashy new paint job with the entire side painted with TEAMSTERS. I want one of those for Christmas.
If the protestors can make it through the weekend without the bill being passed, I believe it will be a new ballgame. Unfortunately, the bill has enough votes to pass.
he will not be "bullied." This is the guy who threatened to mobilize the National Guard to suppress public workers even though nobody was doing nothing.
The Governor had another bad day yesterday when the Archbishop of Wisconsin came out in support of the demonstrators and issued a statement that union workers should not be "marginalized." It got even worst when the Green Bay Packers put their support for the demonstrators in writing--a second shot at the Governor. To top off the day, local tea party members ran ads apologizing to the citizens of Wisconsin for being dupes of corporations. That didn't stop the Koch-funded groups Americans for Prosperity and the Club of Growth advertising they had busses for counter-protestors. But they were swamped by the state-wide demonstrations for the public service workers.
Today might be even worse if Marquette University makes a statement on why it expelled the Governor--for plagarism
More details on how the Governor ginned up the fiscal crisis are emerging. Basically, there isn't one. But one neat trick was that he said that if the public workers don't take a pay and benefit cut then 6,000 jobs will be lost. Isn't it a coincidence that the number he uses is the same number of jobs lost when he turned down the high-speed rail money from the Obama Administration?
Wisconsin Fiscal Bureau, their CBO, revised their budget projections for the state. By June 2011, it will net a surplus of $56 million and they had projected a $202.8 million surplus over the next two years, except this number has been diminished because the Governor gave $140 million in tax breaks to multinational corporations. This only got state-owned businesses steamed since they were excluded.
Our great news media has neglected to inform the public that the state workers have not had contracts for years.
As demonstrations have spread throughout the state and not just in Madison, it's useful to remember why the whole state is in revolt.
The so-called Stop-gap Budget Repair Bill prohibits any union representation or collective bargaining for most state workers. As Rachel Maddow pointed out yesterday, the workers who were excluded were those like the police and firefighters who backed Walker in his election campaign. But even the firefighters support the demonstrators and ushered them into the State House with fifes and drums.
Here's why public service employees find the bill so disturbing:
*If union representation is allowed at all, it will be limited to bargaining for wages. The Senate each year will set the mandatory limit for these wages.
*Union dues will no longer be collected through payroll deductions. This would force unions to collect from each individual. This tactic has been used in other states to gut unions.
*Unions would have to be recertified every year.
*Not just state employees are affected by the bill, but all city,town, village and county employees in the State of Wisconsin. This is the part of the bill, which sparked demonstrations throughout the state.
*There will not be collective bargaining over insurance (which will be replaced by a high-deductible junk health insurance), benefits, pensions,holidays or personal days, vacation,working condtions, adequate staffing, class sizes, worker safety issues, mandatory overtime, shift selection, etc.
As I write this, Wisconsin State Police have caught wind that one Democratic legislators may have slipped home from Illinois last night. They are en route to try and capture him and bring him back to Madison so that the quorum would exist.
President Obama has stayed away from the pay and benefit aspect of the debate but has strongly come out against the aspect of the bill that is aimed at union-busting. Basically, the Washington reaction is split along party lines. Gentleman John Boehner made a statement in defense of Scott Walker. Strangely, Congressman Pat Ryan , Republican of Wisconsin, likened the demonstrations to what was happening in Egypt. So I guess he agrees with the demonstrators' signs calling on Hosni Walker to Step Aside.
Glenn Beck said that the unions, like the Muslim Brotherhood,are agitating for a new world order. The sign post up ahead...
Today Richard Trumpka will be leading a rally in Madison. But I doubt whether Trumpka can beat the cool Teamster semi that showed up with a flashy new paint job with the entire side painted with TEAMSTERS. I want one of those for Christmas.
If the protestors can make it through the weekend without the bill being passed, I believe it will be a new ballgame. Unfortunately, the bill has enough votes to pass.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
The Wisconsin Death Trip
Freshly elected Governor Scott Walker, who has never held any elected office even at the schoolboard level,kicks off his administration by promising to end collective bargaining and arbitration for public service unions. He instantly threatens to call out the National Guard to deal with any unruly workers.
First problem is that Walker never even asked to sit down and discuss labor problems with the unions or their representatives but simply asserted his position. Second problem is that large numbers of the union members are conservatives and Republicans particularly in the targeted Corrections Officers' union. So rural Republican representatives are fit to be tied as their core constituency--the prison workers--are angry. Third problem, the Wisconsin's state version of the CBO said that if the state did nothing about the workers' it would still have a surplus of over $123 million this year.
Walker's actions and threats galvanized the state. The National Guard shot back at him that they weren't his private political police force. The last time the National Guard was called up in Wisconsin was in the late 1890s where they opened fired and killed striking officers.
When the Green Bay Packers turn against the Governor, you know he's in deep do-do. The Packers came out both at the management and player level to voice solidarity with the public sector workers.
Now the private sector is voicing support for the public sector workers and the UAW and Steelworkers are beginning to show up in support.
Yesterday,thousands surrounded the state capital in Madison demanding the Governors' recall. Today, barricades have been built and the police have cordoned off the capital, which is known to be open day and night for citizens. Symbolically this is considered at the local level as an insult by the Governor, violating the state's open tradition.
Last night 1,000 protestors gathered outside the Governor's private home. Demonstrations were held in every city in the state. 10,000 teachers gathered at a night time rally outside the capital building.
Wisconsin has a long history of progressive politics on both sides of the aisle. ACFSME was created there in 1923. And it was the first state to have kindergarten.The Governors' actions were denounced by conservative Republicans in the state as too radical and a "big government power grab."
The Governor now says that he will use the National Guard to perform the jobs of the public sector. This is only pissing the prison workers off even more. Most of them made the transition to prison work because local manufacturing plants closed down.The prison work pays less but it has some rudimentary benefits and a possibility of a pension. These the Governor wants to take away.
Schools are closed today because the teachers stayed off the job.
The Governors' bill may pass the Republican dominated legislature but there are sure to be ramifications. Next week John Kasich of Ohio is going to try the same thing in an attempt to outlaw collective bargaining and arbitration. He too hasn't asked to talk to any of the unions or their represenatives. Both Walker and Kasich won paper-thin victories in the fall elections but both are committed to govern by ideology and ignore those who didn't vote for them.
Remember, both Governors refused the federal money for the high speed rail projects,the act costing each of their states several thousand jobs.
First problem is that Walker never even asked to sit down and discuss labor problems with the unions or their representatives but simply asserted his position. Second problem is that large numbers of the union members are conservatives and Republicans particularly in the targeted Corrections Officers' union. So rural Republican representatives are fit to be tied as their core constituency--the prison workers--are angry. Third problem, the Wisconsin's state version of the CBO said that if the state did nothing about the workers' it would still have a surplus of over $123 million this year.
Walker's actions and threats galvanized the state. The National Guard shot back at him that they weren't his private political police force. The last time the National Guard was called up in Wisconsin was in the late 1890s where they opened fired and killed striking officers.
When the Green Bay Packers turn against the Governor, you know he's in deep do-do. The Packers came out both at the management and player level to voice solidarity with the public sector workers.
Now the private sector is voicing support for the public sector workers and the UAW and Steelworkers are beginning to show up in support.
Yesterday,thousands surrounded the state capital in Madison demanding the Governors' recall. Today, barricades have been built and the police have cordoned off the capital, which is known to be open day and night for citizens. Symbolically this is considered at the local level as an insult by the Governor, violating the state's open tradition.
Last night 1,000 protestors gathered outside the Governor's private home. Demonstrations were held in every city in the state. 10,000 teachers gathered at a night time rally outside the capital building.
Wisconsin has a long history of progressive politics on both sides of the aisle. ACFSME was created there in 1923. And it was the first state to have kindergarten.The Governors' actions were denounced by conservative Republicans in the state as too radical and a "big government power grab."
The Governor now says that he will use the National Guard to perform the jobs of the public sector. This is only pissing the prison workers off even more. Most of them made the transition to prison work because local manufacturing plants closed down.The prison work pays less but it has some rudimentary benefits and a possibility of a pension. These the Governor wants to take away.
Schools are closed today because the teachers stayed off the job.
The Governors' bill may pass the Republican dominated legislature but there are sure to be ramifications. Next week John Kasich of Ohio is going to try the same thing in an attempt to outlaw collective bargaining and arbitration. He too hasn't asked to talk to any of the unions or their represenatives. Both Walker and Kasich won paper-thin victories in the fall elections but both are committed to govern by ideology and ignore those who didn't vote for them.
Remember, both Governors refused the federal money for the high speed rail projects,the act costing each of their states several thousand jobs.
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