Looks like Romney has sewn it up…

Having won in Wisconsin, Maryland and DC last night, Romney is being held up by all the pundits as the sure to be Republican Presidential nominee… even though he only has about half of the delegates for the convention.

Santorum is not a close second and would have needed Wisconsin to keep the possibility that he’d take the nomination at the convention. As for Gingrich and Paul, we have to wonder why they waste people’s money running.

We can expect Romney in the remaining primaries to ignore his competitors and focus on attacking the President.

The full scale Presidential campaign is about to have an early start.

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• Romney Shifts to General-Election Mode (theroot.com)
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• Three Big Things Progressives Should Look For In Today’s GOP Primary (thinkprogress.org)
• Romney wins Maryland, halfway home on delegates (seattlepi.com)
• Wisconsin primary looms large for Romney, larger for Santorum (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
• Santorum defiant; Romney set for strong showing – Obama tries to overshadow GOP field, again (foxnews.com)

The Humor of Mitt Romney…

Picked this off the Daily Kos. Listening to Mitt’s actual words over the cartoon is a gas:

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• Jon Stewart Surveys the GOP’s Palpable Reluctance Over Romney: VIDEO (towleroad.com)
• Humorous anecdote: Mitt Romney mocked John Kerry for being rich (dailykos.com)
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Scott Walker is looking forward to making REAL money…

Wouldn’t you consider the $144,423 that Scott Walker makes as Governor of Wisconsin is a good salary? Gee… it would make MY life a lot easier. Walker, however, told right-wing radio host Charlie Sykes, that he was about to “make some real money” if he were to leave politics and enter the private sector:

And if we fail to win, it will take us down the path we see, failing, people like the people in Illinois, down in Springfield, and I for one don’t want that. Not because this job is that important to me, ‘cuz frankly my wife in some ways would love it if I’d go back to the private sector and make some real money.

So I guess he doesn’t care what happens in his upcoming recall election… and if that’s true, why doesn’t he just quit? Most of Wisconsin would be happy if we did.

 

And as long as we’re talking about Wisconsin I’d like to say “Hi” to my son in Milwaukee. Chin up, Bud!

Related articles

• “I saw a bald eagle flying over the [Wisconsin] Capitol.” (althouse.blogspot.com)
• Governor Walker’s Wisconsin Lost 3,900 Private-Sector Jobs In December, Nation Added Jobs That Month (dekerivers.wordpress.com)
• Governor Walker’s Wisconsin Lost 11,700 Private-Sector Jobs In November From October (dekerivers.wordpress.com)
• Union-Busting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker ‘Far Off Pace’ From Delivering On Job Creation Promises (thinkprogress.org)
• Why Can’t Gov. Scott Walker Stop the Job Losses in Wisconsin? (crooksandliars.com)
• Scott Walker Rallies Against Recall Efforts At CPAC 2012 (huffingtonpost.com)
• On and To Scott “the American Assad” Walker, the Godless, Soulless, Spineless, Bloodless, Heartless Governor of Wisconsin (spwg22.wordpress.com)

Quote of the Day – Wisconsin Governor Walker denies health care for his constituents

Wisconsin (unfortunately the state my son and his fiancee live in) will turn down $37 million from the federal government that had been awarded to help implement health care exchanges under President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, Gov. Scott Walker said Wednesday.

This is regarded as a purely political decision by a Governor who is currently facing a major recall petition (over one million signatures) to remove him from office.

The American Cancer Society is among many organizations commenting on the situation:

“A robust, consumer-friendly health exchange designed specifically for Wisconsin would greatly expand access to care to those who need it most, while preserving what already works. It’s unfortunate the (Walker) administration is deciding to ignore this reality.”

- Allison Miller, Wisconsin government relations director for the American Cancer Society.

One would hope that Wisconsin could get this turkey out of office as soon as possible and elect someone who has the concerns of the citizens ahead of party.

Here’s to everyone’s families on Thanksgiving Eve…

Tomorrow, families everywhere will be getting together to enjoy Thanksgiving, and I think it is Families we should be most thankful for.

Locally, Elly and I are going over to my daughter Penny’s to have delicious locally raised heirloom turkey with her and her three boys. Not all of our family will be there… but we all got together last Saturday (from as far away as Wisconsin and Connecticut and Virginia) for Elly’s surprise birthday party over at the Entler Hotel (one of our historic sites) in Shepherdstown. So many came in that they couldn’t all afford to get here tomorrow… but we did get to see everyone during the week.

So enjoy your family tomorrow and be good to each other.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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I’ll be doing Winners And Losers on WSHC all week…

John Case is off on his Blues Tour and is camping out in the Alleghenies among other things… so I’ll be doing the 7:30 – 9:00 AM show all week. If you are local, tune in 89.7 FM. If you are anywhere else in the USA you can tune in on the internet at www.897wshc.org and hear everything live.

You can call in, too, at 304.876.5369.

Roger Ebert on “The One Percenters…”

Here are a couple of fragments from a very good article on our current economic state by, of all people, Roger Ebert, film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times. I’ve picked a couple of comments, but click on the link below to read the whole thing,

clipped from blogs.suntimes.com Day after day I read stories that make me angry. Wanton consumption is glorified. Corruption is rewarded. Ordinary people see their real income dropping, their houses sold out from under them, their pensions plundered, their unions legislated against, their health care still under attack. Yes, people in Wisconsin and Ohio have risen up to protest these realities, but why has there not been more outrage? The most visible centers of these crimes against the population are Wall Street and the financial industry in general. Although there are still many honest bankers, some seem to regard banking and trading as a license to steal. Outrageous acts are committed and go unpunished. I have the quaint idea that wealth should be obtained by legal and conventional means–by working, in other words–and not through the manipulation of financial scams.   What puzzles me is why there isn’t more indignation.

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Wisconsin Supreme Court Election Update:

As of 9:30 this morning:

clipped from www.huffingtonpost.com   Scott Walker’s ‘Waterloo’: 19 Counties Flip To Democrats In Wisconsin Supreme Court Race   Walker Flipped A divisive budget battle between labor unions and Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) turned a state Supreme Court race into a nationally watched bellwether on the electorate’s mood heading into a recall campaign and the 2012 elections. Nearly 1.5 million people turned out to vote, representing 33.5 percent of voting-age adults — 68 percent higher than the 20 percent turnout officials had expected. JoAnne Kloppenburg has already declared victory, with the vote tallies showing her beating incumbent David Prosser by just a couple hundred votes. The race is expected to head to a recount. Significantly, 19 counties that went for Walker in the 2010 elections this time flipped and went for Kloppenburg, including LaCrosse (59 percent), Sauk (56 percent) and Dunn (56 percent). Justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court serve 10-year terms, and unseating a member is extremely rare.

Wisconsin’s First Turnover… Let’s watch for more…

“Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear.” ~William E. Gladstone, 1866

Received this in the e-mail this afternoon:

They just announced — only minutes ago — the final precincts in the WI Supreme Court race and we won!!

WI Republicans are in a panic. There will be a recount, but the damage is already done. In fact, district by district results show major problems for the WI Republican Senators across the state — especially for Republican Senator Dan Kapanke where JoAnne Kloppenburg won his district handily.

As you know, Kapanke is the first of the Republican Senators to have a recall petition filed on him. Let’s see if they can add more to the list…and hold out until January so they can recall Gov. Walker.

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• BREAKING: First Republican Recalled …boldprogressives.org (ynative77.wordpress.com)
• Dems to force recall of Wisconsin GOP senator (thehill.com)

Wisconsin GOP attacks Judge Sumi(‘s lifestyle!)

clipped from www.salon.com Excerpt from the Dane County Republican broadside: Judge Maryann Sumi The Republican Party of Dane County recognizes that Judge Sumi is a leftist living in Dane County. Her friends are leftists living in Dane County. Her son is a left wing activist in Dane County. She goes to cocktail parties held by leftists in Dane County. She shops at organic gourmet food shops run by leftists living in Dane County. If she were to enforce the law of Wisconsin and do what was in the best interest of the people of Wisconsin, she’d be exiled from her lifestyle. She’d lose her friends! The leadership of the Republican Party of Dane County have all made the choice to stand against the Dane County elite. We accept that Left feels righteous vandalizing our homes and keying our cars. It’s only fair. We disagree based upon logic and principle. That is intolerable! We prioritize the Constitution and the well being of the people of Wisconsin over foie gras at cocktail parties. That’s the choice we made. She shops at organic gourmet food shops run by leftists! Off with her head! But I’m confused — surely someone who cares so deeply about her food would eschew foie gras — made from obscenely fattened ducks — would she not?

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• Meanwhile in Wisconsin, Another TRO (volokh.com)
• Maryann Sumi Blocks Law – Again (freedomeden.blogspot.com)
• Wisconsin judge declares union law not in effect (thestar.com)
• Wisconsin Judge Blocks Gov. Walker – Again (blogs.forbes.com)

BoldProgressives.org releasing new commercial supporting recalls in Wisconsin: focus on education…

This exhibits another increase in support of the anti-Scott Walker and the Republicans Movement. Take a look:

If you want to donate to this program, go to: secure.actblue.com

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So what’s new in Wisconsin?

Just received this in an e-mail from the Daily Kos (to be honest, it was a fundraising letter):

Wisconsin Republicans say the state is too broke to pay for teachers, but they just gave the 26-year-old mistress of a union-busting Republican Senator a state job with a fat raise. It’s a classic Republican scandal filled with hypocrisy, cronyism, and their special version of “family values.”

Here’s the story. Last year, Wisconsin Republican state Senator Randy Hopper left his wife to live with a young Republican political operative. Last month, as Governor Scott Walker unveiled legislation calling for deep cuts in state workers’ salaries and collective bargaining rights, Hopper’s mistress was hired by the state on the advice of Scott Walker’s cabinet as a “communications liaison.” Further, her salary is 35% higher than her predecessor’s.

Randy Hopper is now facing recall.

What is it about Republicans that, no matter what kind of principled stance they claim to be making, they always undermine it with something like this? And they all work together doing it, so you can’t say it isn’t planned. That also means they lie during campaigns and, once they have the majorities they engineer, they go ahead and do what they intended to do… in this case bust unions, get rid of teachers and reward their own.

I’m getting really tired of this… I only wish Democrats had enough guts to go in and make things right. Maybe those 14 Democratic State Senators in Wisconsin are stronger than our Federal donkeys.

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• Girlfriend of Wisconsin Republican state Senator gets state job, 36% raise (dailykos.com)
• Song About Wisconsin State Senator Randy Hopper (dekerivers.wordpress.com)
• Young Lobbyists in Love: The Randy Hopper Story (theawl.com)
• WI State Sen. ‘Randy Hopper Knows How To Create Jobs.’ Yep, For His Young Lobbyist Mistress! (crooksandliars.com)
• Girlfriend of Wisconsin Republican state Senator gets state job, 36% raise (alternet.org)

A Judge gets in Scott Walker’s Way… Collective Bargaining Not Dead yet

John Case in his morning mailing passed on this information from John Wojcik in Peoplesword:

Judge Maryann Sumi

A Dane County judge, at 10:30 AM on the 18th, issued a temporary restraining order blocking implementation of Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s bill that would destroy collective bargaining rights for public workers.

In her ruling, Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi wrote she was issuing her order because a legislative committee likely violated the state’s open meetings law when it rammed through the bill suddenly on March 9.

The restraining order was in response to a lawsuit brought by Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne.

In order that any bill become law in Wisconsin, it has to be published by the Secretary of State.  The restraining order from Judge Sumi prevents Secretary of State Doug LaFollette from publishing the law, as he had planned, on March 25 which would make it take effect on  March 26.  LaFollette, a Democrat, was in no hurray to publish the law anyway.

The judge noted that Conference Committee meetings to move forward legislation can be called only after 24 hours of notice unless there is an emergency. Wisconsin Republicans gave only two hours notice and no emergency could be proven, the judge said.

The court victory is seen as a maj0r loss for Walker and puts the future of the law into question. The labor movement and its allies drew hundreds of thousands to the state Capitol
protesting the legislation and, as you recall, 14 Democratic state senators flee to Illinois to block the vote on the measure.

Stephanie Bloomingfale, the state AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer stated:

“Today justice prevailed. In Wisconsin and America we have a democratic process for passing legislation.”

Wisconsin state senators and state representatives are not scheduled to
meet again until April 5.

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• Wis. law to limit collective bargaining is on hold – Arizona Daily Star (news.google.com)
• Judge Issues Temporary Restraining Order Halting Wisconsin Collective Bargaining Law (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Judge Temporarily Blocks Wisconsin Collective Bargaining Law (mediaite.com)
• Judge Halts Implementation of Anti-Union Law in Wisconsin (news.firedoglake.com)

Got up early this morning and joined John Case on WSHC…

I don’t usually co-host Winners and Losers on a Wednesday, but John’s regular co-host today is in California, so I surprised my friend by showing up at 7:30.

We had quite a good morning… lots of talk on current issues…poetry and prose readings on the subject of “insanity” (this, in case people tuned in ready to hear the “Are You Crazy?” section with John’s resident psychiatrist)… and a long phone call from our friend Mark.

It’s nice getting out of the house on a Wednesday morning, although I have to get up at 6:oo AM to do it… I’m a late sleeper, since it takes me so long to fall asleep at night. The parking in downtown Shepherdstown (which covers two whole blocks) is really good this early in the morning – plus the Shep U students are on Spring break so there are no cars around. With the exception of the WSHC broadcast area, Knutti Hall is like the dead zone.

Anyway, now I’m back home getting ready to walk the dogs. Then I’ll get around to setting the trap for the small creature who is digging holes in our backyard garden area. I hope you all… Japan Tsunami and Wisconsin union activities aside… have a nice day.

Beware The Ides of March – especially in Wisconsin

John Nichols has written another revealing article on the Wisconsin situation in The Nation. This one is a really frightening one for any free American: proposing legislation to deny State Senators the ability to serve their constituents.

Nichols cites State Senator Fred Risser of Madison in the article:
“Who does Senator Fitzgerald think he is? Just because his brother is the speaker of the Assembly and his best friend is the governor of Wisconsin does not give him the power to decide who can and cannot vote in the State Senate,” said Risser, whose Senate service began before Fitzgerald was born. “His statement that Senate Democrats can no longer vote in committee is the height of arrogance. In my tenure in the legislature, I have never seen any attempt to deny duly elected legislators their right to vote.”

Here’s a clip, but go into The Nation’s site and read it all:

clipped from www.thenation.com Wisconsin Republicans have now moved to deny Democratic legislators the right to vote on legislation as it is being considered by state Senate committees. For the better part of a month, fourteen Democratic state senators denied Republicans the quorum they sought to pass Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s anti-labor legislation—and, in so doing, provided the time for the development of a mass movement that last Saturday drew more than 100,000 union supporters to the Capitol. The Democratic senators have returned and the legislation has passed. But Republican poll numbers have collapsed. And they are furious.   How furious? Walker and his legislative consigliere, state Senator Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, have now moved to deny the dissenting Democrats the right to participate in the legislative process. Sen. Scott Fitzgerald (Walker in the background) of "Fitzwalkerstan" The majority leader’s over-the-top actions have led one senior legislator, state Representative Mark Pocan, D-Madison, to begin referring to the Wisconsin as a “third world junta” state that he calls “Fitzwalkerstan.” While that line gets a laugh, the assaults on representative democracy are serious.

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• Wisconsin Anti-Union Bill Gets March 18 Hearing (littlegreenfootballs.com)
• More groups join Wisconsin fight – Politico (news.google.com)
• Welcome Back Wisconsin 14 (mythoughtsideasandramblings.com)
• Wisconsin Senate Won’t Count Democratic Votes (politicalwire.com)
• Kos’s pollster, PPP, surveyed Wisconsin districts about recalling Republican state senators. (althouse.blogspot.com)

My wife directed me to this article at Alternet:

clipped from www.alternet.org Wisconsin Firefighters Shut Down Bank That Funded Walker Everybody knows the GOP‘s biggest weakness is money, so why not hit ‘em in the sweet spot? That’s what many amazing Wisconsin firefighters did yesterday when they collectively began withdrawing their funds from Madison‘s M&I Bank — whose executives and board members were among the highest donors to Governor Scott Walker‘s campaign. Heeding a call by Firefighters Local 311 President Joe Conway to ‘Move your money,’ union members withdrew over $100,000 from the bank, with some reports stating that number is as high as $192,000. Either way, it was a hefty enough chunk of change that M&I shut its doors and closed for the day at 3PM. Anecdoctally — ‘M&I Bank received $1.7 billion in bailout money via President George W. Bush’s Troubled Assets Relief Program. The bank was acquired by the Bank of Montreal in December of 2010 for $4.1 billion in stock,’ reports Dane101.

There are so many ways to show action against the group that ignored the public and carried out this travesty in Wisconsin (and other places… these activities can be applied anywhere.)
It’s as simple as not buying Bounty paper towels to keep money from going to the Koch brothers.

Related Articles

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• Wisconsin Could Lose $46 Million in Federal Funds Thanks to Walker’s Anti-Union Bill – Source: AlterNet (curmilus.wordpress.com)

Here’s what Class War looks like – a Chart

I picked up a very good comparison of the amount of money Scott Walker and his allies in Wisconsin are ready to cut from the budget that effects middle class and union workers to the amount of money given away as tax breaks for the wealthy (reprinted from a Daily Kos post by greywolfe359):

On the left you have the “shared sacrifices” and “painful cuts” that the Republicans claim we must make to get our fiscal house in order. On the right, you can plainly see WHY these cuts are “necessary.” The reason? Because we already gave away all that money to America‘s wealthiest individuals and corporations.

This just mirrors what we’re seeing in Wisconsin, where Governor Walker (R-Koch) claims that ordinary public sector workers need to fork over at least $137 million to save the budget. Problem is, he just gave away $117 million in tax breaks for his corporate pals. This is out and out class warfare. The big corporations in America have decided that they can get even richer by raiding the public treasury. It’s time for the middle class to stand up and defend itself!

Greywolfe359 also gives us this music video for Unions standing up to the Wisconsin Class War:

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• Union-Busting: ‘An Attack on All Working People’ (beavercountyblue.org)
• Wisconsin Protests Spark Ad War (huffingtonpost.com)
• Wisconsin Protesters Removed From State Capitol By Police (huffingtonpost.com)

Then They Came for the Trade Unionists (a quote for this evening)

Thursday 10 March 2011

On this day, it behooves us to remember the words of Martin Niemoller.

“First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

I am a trade unionist, and yesterday in Wisconsin, they came for me. They came for you. They came for every working person in America, and their intent could not be more clear. Governor Scott Walker, along with the Koch Brothers and the right-wing radicals of the Republican Party, moved in darkness and with shameless deceit to gut the ability of dedicated laborers to bargain on an equal footing for the right to earn a living wage and to have access to decent health care.

by: William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed (there is more)

I’d like to thank my wife, Ellen Smith, for pointing this piece out to me.

Related Articles

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John Nichols sums up the Wisconsin situation in his The Beat column from The Nation.

clipped from John Nichols in www.thenation.com… You can go here to read the whole column. Wisconsin State Representative Mark Pocan, the former co-chair of the legislature’s powerful Joint Finance Committee, says he is starting to feel as if he lives in a “third world junta.” Wisconsin State Senator Bob Jauch, a senior Democrat, says that what he is witnessing feels like “a coup.” Marty Beil, the head of the AFSCME Council 24, the state’s largest public employee union, said Wisconsin had been turned into “a banana republic.” And thousands of Wisconsinites, men and women, adults and their children, public employees and private-sector workers, have poured into the state Capitol in Madison, shouting: “Shame! Shame! Shame!” Republican operatives whose disregard for rules – and the popular will – is so extreme that the longest serving legislator in the nation, Wisconsin State Senator Fred Risser, a Madison Democrat, says: “They have not just bent the law. They have broken it.” They did so without hearings, without debate and without following the state’s open meetings laws. But it was a surprise attack rather than an honest win.And it will inspire an appropriate response: Protests now, and the recall and removal of Republican senators in short order. Some of the Republicans may think that “cooler heads will prevail.” They are wrong. The cool heads, the calm and rational Wisconsinites, will be busy in coming days: collecting signatures of recall petitions.

Related Articles

• Wisconsin union fight: Did Democrats get their just desserts? – Christian Science Monitor (news.google.com)
• Chaos Reigns in Wisconsin as Democrats Prepare to Return (online.wsj.com)
• The Wisconsin Recall efforts ‘just got supercharged’ (americablog.com)
• BREAKING!!! EVERY REPUBLICAN Wisconsin State Senator received a DEATH THREAT at 9:18 pm last night (gunnyg.wordpress.com)
• I Turn My Back For One Minute:More Republican Chicanery. (tinfoilhatman45.wordpress.com)

A last quote for the day…

“In thirty minutes, 18 State Senators undid fifty years of civil rights in Wisconsin.

“Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will

Sen. Mark Miller

never be forgotten.

“Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people.

“Tomorrow we will join the people of Wisconsin in taking back their government.”

- Wisconsin Senate Democratic Leader Mark Miller

No further comment necessary.

Related Articles

• Wisconsin Senate Pass Anti-Union Half Of Controversial Bill Absent Democrats (mediaite.com)
• Rachel Maddow Says Wall Street Journal Story on Possible End of Wisconsin Standoff Was ‘Bad Reporting’ (mediaite.com)

Walker screws the Democratic Senators… and the People of Wisconsin…at the last minute…

…screws the Union workers, too. Screws Wisconsin actually.

He’s using a “nuclear option” to just bring up the anti-Union section of the bill to a vote, which will not require a quorum )since they now claim it is NOT budget related.)

It was also a 180-degree reversal by Walker and state Senate Republicans, who have insisted for the past three weeks that the collective bargaining provision was designed to help alleviate the state’s budget problems. State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R) had previously said he would not attempt to pass any portions of the bill without Democrats present.

Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate voted 18-1 to strip Union rights and no Democrats were present.

These are outrageous bullying tactics, done without saying anything to the press or public (even though there is a Wisconsin law saying such a maneuver would require a 24 hour public announcement.

From HuffPo:

University of Madison-Wisconsin student journalist Talya Minsberg, who is at the Capitol, told The Huffington Post that there are vastly more people stuck outside than inside due to “airport-style” security measures. Those outside crowded around a window near where the vote was taking place, to shout and protest Republican lawmakers: “You lied! You lied! You lied to Wisconsin!” went one chant. “Shame!” went another.

A mockery has been made of the rule of law and Scott Walker will pay a huge political price for this.

Related Articles

• Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Rejects Dems’ Meeting Proposal (kaystreet.wordpress.com)
• The name for what Scott Walker, The Wisconsin Republican Senators and David Koch are trying to pull is called “structural adjustment” (iflizwerequeen.com)
• Scott Walker, Wisconsin GOP, wavering under recall pressure (dailykos.com)
• Quote of the Day – Russ Feingold, former Wisconsin Senator, to Scott Walker, Wisconsin Governor (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
• Wisconsin Republican: attacks on unions aim to defeat Obama (dailykos.com)

Scott Walker Budges!

This just in from Talking Points Memo:

clipped from tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com Governor Walker and Senator Cullen Gov. Scott Walker‘s (R-WI) office has now released documents from its negotiations with two of the 14 state Senate Democrats who had left the state in order to block budget quorum – state Sens. Tim Cullen and Bob Jauch — in an effort to demonstrate that he could give up some of his proposals that have been widely derided as union-busting of public employees. As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports, one of the Dem point men is now only slamming Walker for releasing the e-mails: Cullen characterized the talks as “discussions” rather than negotiations since he and Jauch weren’t speaking on behalf of other Democrats. Jauch also cautioned that the two sides had never reached a final deal. “I’ve never seen negotiations be done successfully in public,” he said. “I thought they were bargaining in good faith.” • Some collective bargaining rights would be restored, relating to workplace safety. • Other issues such as classroom size and mandatory overtime would be bargainable — but both labor and management would have to agree to discuss it in order for bargaining to happen. • A provision that salary increases would be bargainable — but could not rise above inflation unless subjected to a local referendum — would be removed. The Journal Sentinel has the e-mails here.

Related Articles

• Wisconsin: Sen. Jauch Says 6 or 7 Republican Senators Don’t Want to Strip Collective Bargaining (news.firedoglake.com)
• E-mails: Wisconsin gov offers concessions on budget (cnn.com)
• E-mails: Wisconsin governor offers concessions on budget bill – CNN (news.google.com)

North Dakota solved the Wisconsin problem and made it profitable…

North Dakota is not that far from Wisconsin

… and it did it by turning pension funds into an Investment Bank. No layoffs, no Union destruction, only a predetermined shift in types of equity.

Here’s the start of an article by Ellen Brown that Truthout reprinted from YES! Magazine. Start here then go to Truthout and read the whole thing. You’ll find the solution gratifying:

clipped from www.truth-out.org How Wisconsin Could Turn Austerity Into Prosperity: Own a Bank As states struggle to meet their budgets, public pensions are on the chopping block, but they needn’t be. States can keep their pension funds intact while leveraging them into many times their worth in loans, just as Wall Street banks do. They can do this by forming their own public banks, following the lead of North Dakota—a state that currently has a budget surplus. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, whose recently proposed bill to gut benefits, wages, and bargaining rights for unionized public workers inspired weeks of protests in Madison, has justified the move as necessary for balancing the state’s budget. But is it? President Obama has charged Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker with attempting to bust the unions. But Walker’s defense is: “We’re broke. Like nearly every state across the country, we don’t have any more money.” That’s what he says, but according to Wisconsin’s 2010 CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report) the state has $67 billion in pension and other employee benefit trust funds, invested mainly in stocks and debt securities drawing a modest return. Read the rest of it HERE.

By setting up a State-Controlled Bank with their investment funds, which is what North Dakota did, cutting out the Wall Street investment firms’ profits and making their funds in house (created some new jobs, too.) When you read the whole article you will see why someone should give this idea to Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Republicans.

Show support for the Wisconsin 14…

Andrew Leonard pointed out in a Salon article today that the real value of the 14 Democratic State Senators in Wisconsin who are carrying out their Northern Illinois stall is that they have given the whole country time to see what is really happening in the US Economy. Here’s a clip from his article:

Andrew Leonard in Salon:

The question of who has won or lost Wisconsin, ultimately, will await the next election. But after mulling Hall’s McClatchy article, it’s clear that no matter what the outcome, those renegade senators did achieve a very real thing. They gave the entire nation the time to take a close look at what’s happening — to really examine the figures on pension funds and the role of unions, both private and public, in the U.S. economy. We have the chance now to compare the Republican political agenda with reality. Will we take it?

If you want to thank these heroes for their ongoing stance in support of collective bargaining with public employee unions… with the preservation of unions themselves… here are their e-mail addresses. Let them know they have the support of the majority of Americans.

Sen.carpenter@legis.wisconsin.gov, Sen.coggs@legis.wisconsin.gov,
Sen.Cullen@legis.wisconsin.gov, Sen.erpenbach@legis.wisconsin.gov,
Sen.hansen@legis.wisconsin.gov, Sen.Holperin@legis.wisconsin.gov,
Sen.jauch@legis.wisconsin.gov, Sen.Larson@legis.wisconsin.gov,
Sen.lassa@legis.wisconsin.gov, Sen.miller@legis.wisconsin.gov,
Sen.risser@legis.wisconsin.gov, Sen.taylor@legis.wisconsin.gov,
Sen.Vinehout@legis.wisconsin.gov, Sen.wirch@legis.wisconsin.gov

Related Articles

• Solidarity Is More Than Shouting Slogans, So Lend a Hand! (beavercountyblue.org)
• Rachel Maddow Says Wall Street Journal Story on Possible End of Wisconsin Standoff Was ‘Bad Reporting’ (mediaite.com)
• Jauchstrap returns briefly to Wisconsin (apostleislands.wordpress.com)

Tom Tomorrow’s This Modern World is Hysterical Today…

If you’re not a Salon reader and don’t see Tom Tomorrow’s comic strip, you are really missing out on something terrific… take today’s visit with the Gloxians for example (amazing how similar their world is to our own!)

Click on the sample frame and read the whole thing:

Have a good time.