What the hell?
The special conference committee in Wisconsin — convened in order to strip out the fiscal elements of Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill, in order to pass the anti-public employee union proposals and avoid the state SenateDemocratic boycott of the three-fifths budget quorum — just met for roughly five minutes and passed the bill.
Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D) attempted to make a motion to delay the meeting or make amendments — and was not recognized for a motion by the chair, state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. Barca argued, over Fitzgerald’s attempts to say there would be no motions, that the conference committee violated the state’s open meetings law, which requires at least 24 hours notice before a government meeting, unless there is good cause to act more quickly.
The bill then passed in committee on a 4-2, party-line margin — and in a surreal sight, the online feed of the state equivalent of C-Span, Wisconsin Eye, faded out to tranquil music as the video was playing the shouting and ire of the meeting itself.
Literally five minutes later, the Senate passed the anti-collective bargaining provisions 18-1 with Republican Dale Schulz voting no. The Wisconsin Democrats are still in Illinois, apparently.
Hooray for democracy!
UPDATE: Walker’s statement:
“The Senate Democrats have had three weeks to debate this bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come home, which they refused. In order to move the state forward, I applaud the Legislature’s action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform government. The action today will help ensure Wisconsin has a business climate that allows the private sector to create 250,000 new jobs.”
Again, HOORAY FOR DEMOCRACY!
What a lying asshole. Sure… we need to bust up unions because of the deficit, that’s why.
UPDATE 2: It’s my understanding that it is procedurally proper, but that it reveals Walker’s “it’s the deficit, stupid!” reasoning to have been a sham.
Also, too, Open Thread.
Just Some Fuckhead
Woohoo – victory!
debit
General strike now?
BGinCHI
I think the previous post title, Inside Job, is more appropriate for this bullshit.
This aggression will not stand.
Cain
Flawless victory.
Cain
Flawless victory… fatality.
D0n Camillo
See you at the recalls, bitches!
dmsilev
So, how do they justify this as anything but a naked power grab, since they’ve now admitted that the budget angle was just a lie?
dms
Roger Moore
Obviously there was good cause. If they had actually let the Democrats know, the trick wouldn’t have worked. To the Republicans, getting their way is a good enough reason to do anything.
Studly Pantload
Poor WI Dems — brought a no-show to a corporatist-coup fight.
“Wisconsin Nice” is about to be sorely tested.
WarMunchkin
So uh, do they get to repeal the idea of a recall, too?
Alex S.
This bill is a result of democracy. And only democracy can change it. Let’s see if people have learned their lesson.
Brian S (formerly Incertus)
What’s the over-under on successful recalls now? 3?
Original Lee
I am going to download the video to my computer and use it next year when my kids take U.S. Government as an illustration of the importance of knowing proper parliamentary procedure. Friends in Wisconsin say there is nothing in Wisconsin’s statutes that prevents this kind of thing from happening AND that there is no way to seek redress other than a ballot proposition or a recall. Is this true? I find it hard to believe that somebody hasn’t tried this kind of thing before, or that the survivors didn’t write roadblocks.
JC
Obviously, just another log on the fire of dishonest, authoritarian, elitism, for the corporatocracy, by the corporatocracy. Aided and abetted by corporate, he said/she said politics as entertainment media.
And regular people suffer.
It’s not enough to get angry though. We all pretty much knew stuff like this would happen, given the November elections result.
What is the appropriate, results getting, response?
That’s really the only thing that matters – for here, for Ohio, for Florida, for protecting the working and middle classes?
Brian S (formerly Incertus)
@Alex S.: I remember reading back when this idea was first proffered that it could result in a shitload of lawsuits. Might not need democracy alone to change this.
Tom Q
General Pyrrhus gets his victory.
How far down will his approval rating sink now?
jnfr
Twitter hashtag is #wiunion if you want to follow. I’ve been reading for an hour. News channels are just starting to catch up.
Assembly vote will be at 10 am tomorrow, but Repubs have the numbers to win that vote easily.
Talk about ramming a bill through! The Repubs put Dems to shame on that front.
Kryptik
…HOW?! How does this prove how important it was to the budget to totally destroy the foundation of unions?! How the fuck does this somehow create 250K more jobs? How, you fucking goddamn cretin, how, how, how?!
Tom Q
@Brian S (formerly Incertus): This will be a fund-raising machine for the recall movement.
They really are prepared to walk off a cliff. Some of these GOPers have to know this will mean political death, and they did it anyway.
WI a Dem state for the foreseeable future.
Kryptik
@Tom Q:
But even if the recall efforts manage to go through, what’s the realistic assessment of when this shit sandwich would be undone? That’s the most infuriating part about this.
Brick Oven Bill
Good times.
jnfr
@Original Lee:
There is a state rule requiring 24 hours notice before a meeting, two hours for an emergency. It’s not clear this is legal. Dems say they don’t know what’s in the bill, and no motions or amendments were allowed.
Brian S (formerly Incertus)
@Kryptik: Probably 2012, assuming Dems can get both houses back and can recall Walker. Tall order, no doubt.
JC
Kryptik,
He’s a complete, total liar. Why ask how?
Tom Q – I hope you are right. But the impact needs to be made clear to everyone who is a union member, to change the ratio of voting from 60-40 Dem, to 85-15 Dem.
Just like the hispanic vote went from 60-40 demo, to now more like 80-20 dem, this NEEDS to be capitalized on, to push 90 percent of teachers, police officers, nurses, firefighters, other union members, to vote progressive.
jnfr
Here’s the meeting notice by the way. It includes the changes to Medicaid, and the ability for the governor to sell off power plants, etc.
El Cid
__
Republicans will be horrified to know that their arguments were more than moral posturing in order to pursue venal and class-domination goals.
dmsilev
I read somewhere (TPM, I think) that in general WI parliamentary rules require 24 hours notice. So, there’s a chance that it wasn’t procedurally proper. Wonder if that’s grounds for a lawsuit (or, more properly, if there’s a state court in WI that would touch this with a ten foot pole).
dms
Violet
@Tom Q:
It’s not a Dem state now. And November, 2012 is a long way off. A week is a long time in politics. A year and a half is plenty of time to get everyone scared of Mooslims again so they vote Republican.
Matt
@Kryptik:
If the WI Dems have any sense, statements like this are going to land the bill in court for a while. The whole quorum issue was caused by the requirement in the WI state constitution for a certain number of senators to vote on “budgetary” bills. They don’t have that number, so claiming the bill will “balance the budget” seems to imply the passage wasn’t legal.
In any case, I suspect the turnout to recall Walker will likely *ensure* that WI stays blue in the 2012 Presidential race – kind of like how Shrub’s first election (in 2004) was helped by anti-gay measures on swing-state ballots.
John S.
Don’t cry for us here in Florida. We’re a state without any real union protections, and Governor Lex Luthor has the teachers in his crosshairs already. And we have no recall provisions for elected officials. So we’re pretty much fucked.
On the bright side, in 4 years Rick Scott will have succeeded in turning Florida into a reliably blue state. In fact, I suspect he has already delivered Florida to Obama for 2012.
Elie
@JC:
I agree with everything you say, but if the little/regular people don’t get up off their collective behinds, they will get what they get…
I am tired of advocating for the “little guy” who thinks others will fight their battles. All over the world, folks are literally getting killed standing up. Alls we have to do is think a little bit and fucking vote with intelligence once in a few years.
No more tears for moron “little guys”. Just the load meter that tells us when they have had enough of sitting on fat, lazy behinds and not using lazy brains to allow this to continue…
Done.With.It.
JCT
Well, now there’s a shocker. Off I go to make another ActBlue contribution — while I still have any way to actually take part in the political process, g_d knows what these fucks will do next.
mclaren
The Wisconsin Repubs are doubling down. Look for ’em to introduce a bill legalizing child labor, a la the Missouri bill, next. After that, probably a bill reinstating indentured servitude. The Repubs are going for the gusto. They want to see how far they can push this thing.
“When they overreach, you must impeach,” to paraphrase Johnny Cochran.
El Cid
@Kryptik: Trying to estimate the future of the actual climate is an impossible science, one which is subject to manipulation by biased scientists
Estimating the future of the business climate is 100% exact, since all the states which have no unions are all rich and completely successful.
Jim
While I am not in favor of the measures, the whole “whatever happened to democracy?” talk is a bit ridiculous. This is the democracy we have. Wisconsinites got what they deserved (don’t tell me they didn’t campaign on it; Republicans are fundamentally anti-union and this is the logical endpoint of their policies); if they don’t like it, they can change it in the future. If they have a recall, they can do that. The idea that legislators should be “listening to the protesters” is retarded–just as retarded as it was during the health care town halls.
Brian S (formerly Incertus)
@John S.: I don’t know. I hope you’re right, but I haven’t seen any indication that the general populace is any smarter now than they were the last time they elected a legislature.
Asshole
Motherfucker.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@BGinCHI: That was my thought: John is watching the wrong Inside Job.
Mike Kay (Ding-Dong-Broder's Dead)
This is only round one. And they couldn’t even pull that out without cheating.
BGinCHI
Let’s see if anyone in the Beltway media can connect the dots between “now we can have 250K jobs in the private sector” and “we passed a big union-busting bill.”
Is there ANY chance they will call bullshit on this? Can they even make sense out of it?
I’d love to hear Walker provide details.
Splitting Image
I assume the reason they did it was to force the Democrats back to vote on the budget bill minus the anti-union bits. The Republicans can now present the budget as an honest attempt to deal with the deficit and if the Democrats don’t play ball, David Broder will be there to explain how this proves the Democrats are the unreasonable ones and they’re all still tax-and-spend liberals at heart.
Oh, wait. Guess he won’t.
I suppose this is a test to determine who will take up his mantle.
mclaren
People act as though unionizing is just a matter of everyone getting up off their fat lazy asses, incidentally, which happens to be untrue. Unions have been busted in America primarily by outsourcing and offshoring and automating the work, not by classic union-busting tactics.
If you look at the states in the deep south which are completely non-unionized, you realize that these are the states that got most decimated when their textile and light manufacturing industries were all offshored.
Hard to unionize when your employer says “No problemo, then I fire everyone and move the factory to rural China.”
Violet
According to Twitter #wiunion, a general strike is being discussed.
JC
Eli,
Why can’t we do smart things, like advocate that national/state elections happen on a Saturday every two years?
I said this before, but, since it came up in Canada – why can’t we start pushing a ‘no lying/misleading speech’ in the U.S., like they have in Canada?
It’s a good theme, right – ‘you aren’t allowed to lie on national TV without being fined’. Call it the “No Lies Campaign”.
Keep pushing it for ten years or so, however long it takes.
Southern Beale
Meanwhile, death of another right wing myth: Texas is not, in fact, stealing jobs & wealth from California.
patrick II
And in more good news:
NPR President and CEO Vivian Schiller resigned under pressure on Wednesday amid a storm of negative reaction…
arguingwithsignposts
@mclaren:
Bullshit, mclaren. Union-busting is still big business. Ask Wal-Mart.
Tom Q
@JC: I believe that’s what’s in the cards. The bald anti-union-ism had already been moving alot of people, and I think the brazen dirty-tricks quality of this move will solidify that. If the GOP loses those “union guy but willing to vote Republican on cultural grounds” demographic, it’s going to be in even worse shape than the population trends have been indicating.
Kryptik, no doubt it’s going to take a while to reverse this — probably a gubernatorial recall on top of legislative seats — and I don’t underestimate what a hardship it’s going to be for state workers in the interim. But I don’t see this as anything but a crushing blow to the conservative movement in the long run.
To show I’m an old guy: I was around and sentient the night Nixon fired Archibald Cox (and Elliot Richardson, and Bill Ruckelshaus), and this is very reminiscent.
Kryptik
@JC:
Because Fox News will simply end up leading a successful parallel campaign to have lying legally defined as ‘Anything a Dirty Fucking Liberal Says’.
JC
Reason why I say this, is because ‘voters get what they ask for’, is true, and certainly our participation is atrocious but there is a lot that can be done to make it easy for voters to vote. Certainly part of the problem in 2010 was that people tune out every off year, so the ‘result’ isn’t really a result of the national will, it’s more the result of the motivated minority
stuckinred
Lawrence has a Wisc Dem Rep on that says it’s a violation of the law, not the rules.
arguingwithsignposts
@JC:
Elie
@mclaren:
You definitely have a point.
And the race to the bottom in the US will not be pretty…
That said, not sure that the Chinese can absorb more capacity without poisoning their environment (and ours) to a fatal level. But who cares, right? The sun is going to just blow up some day anyway…
Omnes Omnibus
I am at the Capitol. Dens are setting up hearings so the building can stay open. Large angry crowd. Cold fingers. More later.
Midnight Marauder
@Tom Q:
Only one way to fight zealotry like that:
Burn the forest down.
Tom Q
@Violet: WI in 2012, with presidential year turnout, I’m willing to bet money I don’t have is Dem by 10 points. And, no, I don’t think voters’ memories are THAT short.
Kryptik
@Tom Q:
I wish I could agree, but the last time the ‘conservative movement’ was crushed, we got 2 years of the fucking tea party, the GOP in de facto control of Congress until they got actual control of the House, and a general de-legitimization of everything and anything fucking liberal because apparently the country can be convinced that hippies are the death of everything even as banks fucking rape and pillage fucking everything.
I’m sorry, but my optimism is at a premium these days.
John S.
@Brian S (formerly Incertus)
All I can say for certain is that NONE of the Republicans here that I know personally are happy with Rick Scott thus far. And he has managed to piss off a fair amount of the Republicans in the legislature with his antics, too. Considering that he got elected with less than a majority of the vote, I think it’s pretty safe to say he is a one term governor. I can only hope that his failure and shame is paraded around for all to see once and for all what a flawed concept the CEO style of governance really is.
The only real unknowns are 1) how much damage he will actually do and 2) how long it will take to fix it.
magurakurin
@Elie:
this. sadly, this. And I don’t give much to the “they are deceived by the propaganda media” defense either. Not to say the media isn’t lying, propagandist assholes…they most certainly are. But, I know the truth, you know the truth and lots of others do too. Why is that? Because we spent a couple of minutes to think about shit. It really isn’t that hard. The media, especially FOX, has devolved into more or less pure propaganda, but if you read Jacques Ellul, you will realize that his claim that propagandees are largely willing participants in the overall system is quite true.
People need to wake the fuck up…or not. I suppose maybe they liking eating shit, don’t know for sure.
asiangrrlMN
@Omnes Omnibus: Stay safe and report in when you can.
So, if this passes tomorrow, then it’s law? WTF?
@Midnight Marauder: With you on that. If they want to go out in flames, then let’s help them do so.
arguingwithsignposts
@Omnes Omnibus:
Can you see Ann Altmouse anywhere, or her faithful sidekick Meade?
Hawes
This works well for the Democrats.
1) Exposes the naked power grab
2) Unifies the Democrats, Progressives and Leftists
3) Let’s the Wisconsin 14 come home without having to betray the principles they left for
4) As noted above, this turns Wisconsin into the Blue Cheese state.
SiubhanDuinne
I need vocabulary enhancement. Someone please give me a better verb than fuck, a better gerund than fucking, a better adjective than fucked, and a better noun than fuckers. Fuck those fucking fuckers, we’re fucked. Sorry, that’s just waaaay too mild to express my feelings about these fucking fuckers. Fuck.
M-Pop
FUCK! What the FUCK!!!! (am I going to get digibeeped?)
I cannot believe this is happening, and can only hope that there is a procedural error which will nullify this – what an awful day for the working people of Wisconsin.
SP
In a thread near the start of this (too lazy to find the link) I expressed my surprise that they were bothering to let things like parliamentary rules and the law prevent them “passing” this. All they needed was to find some lawyer whose opinion is that the Wisconsin unitary executive principle means the Republicans can do whatever they want. I’m no longer surprised. Laws, like “shared sacrifice,” are for the little people.
JenJen
From the TPM article:
That is some Soviet shit right there. Simply mindblowing.
Violet
@Tom Q:
I’m with Kryptik on this. Obama had a mountain of goodwill and the Dems had both houses of Congress and what did we get? Teabagger hell and a GOP sweep two years later. 2012 is a long way away. Unless the Dems and unions keep up the pressure with action after action and Walker, etc. just keep bungling things, this will be old, old news by then.
chris
Since some of this will end up being litigated, does anyone here know anything about the WI supreme court? Is it a 5-4 CU decison, Bush Vs Gore kinda court? Is it packed with past wingnut appointees or is it elected?
Tom Q
@Kryptik: If the issue is, can I promise there won’t be wimpy Dems who half-wreck every progressive attempt to fix things, the answer is clearly no. But that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about the results of coming elections, and I think this almost-manic GOP overreach just about guarantees they suffer serious losses the next time voters go to the polls.
beltane
@Omnes Omnibus: Keep warm, shout loud.
Hawes
@Kryptik: I think 2012 looks really good for Dems if Reagan Democrats (blue collar social conservatives) come home in large numbers in the Rust Belt.
2014, when they all get distracted and stay home is another matter.
Elie
@JC:
Because we are animals in the US.
It will come to you too. You will look up and be surprised, but the US is a big influence, even as you better us in superficial ways.
But if you look under the blankets, you had better get ready.
Please believe me, I support your values and what you express. On the sharp end of where I live everyday on the corporate America chain, I have a different view. I know how fucked we are and our political process is too broken to fix as is.
Yeah, it would be wonderful to have the actions that you suggest. You are literally, living in a different world up there. I am jealous but know that we down here in the US had better be realistic about what is what. We are not even in the same galaxy with Canada.
And you Canadians. Pay.fucking.attention and take good notes. The crap is coming to you real soon. Be.Prepared.
stuckinred
This is a surprise huh? sheeeeeet
Tom Q
@Violet: We also got a Health Care bill we’d waited a century for, and Financial regulation, and a repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and (consult Rachel Maddow for the full list). It wasn’t all we wanted, and it’s a bitch the economy gave the GOP back the House, but, please, don’t give me the Obama did Nothing argument.
asiangrrlMN
You know what really makes me mad? I gave up swearing for Lent. Seriously. How can I respond to this without my swears?
Poopyman
@Omnes Omnibus: We’re with you, man!
Should we ever meet, you’ve got a nice single malt served whichever way you like as payment for those cold fingers.
beltane
But both sides do it, right?
If the Democrats were this ruthless in the pursuit of the good as the Republicans are in the pursuit of evil this country would be a far better place. The Republicans understand very little in this world, but they do understand power.
Cacti
Wisconsin voted for wingnuts, it got wingnut legislation.
Reap what you sow.
Elie
@SiubhanDuinne:
Four stars!!!
JCT
At the very least guys like Walker, Scott, Christie and Kasich are providing us with some nice “if-then” examples for 2012. As in, if you elect teabaggers or felons or assholes, then this sort of crap is what you get. No more fairy tales for their “beliefs or motivations” in the run-up to the next election.
They got away with it last Nov, now they are exposed — including all of their shortcomings.
mclaren
@arguingwithsignposts:
Would you agree that service industries are slightly different from manufacturing?
You’re correct that most service industries can’t be moved to China, since they require in-person presence. I.e., your waitress can’t be outsourced to China. So those industries are still getting union-busted.
Note, however, that robotics continues to advance and the big fast food chains are already testing completely robotic fast food franchises. This sounds like science fiction, but it’s coming. Ultimately, Wal-Mart stock clerks and greeters and cashiers will be automated out of existence by robots, so the union-busting (while significant) remains an intermediate stage.
Nobody is really talking about the one-two punch of automation + offshoring, but it’s decimating the workforce for the 75% of American workers without a four-year college degree. And by the way…the vast majority of jobs in America do not require a college degree. And never will.
Calouste
Well, only need to have the National Guard shooting at protestors and the coup d’etat is complete.
Violet
@Tom Q:
I’m not. I’m actually pleased with what Obama and the Congress got done. I wish it were more, but it was good. But what I’m disappointed in was the message machine and how it just seemed to fold after the election. Crap like “death panels” never, EVER should have been allowed to take hold. How the hell did they not anticipate that the teabaggers would take over the town hall meetings? Stuff like that just seemed incredibly amateur and left a lot of really good stuff that people not only want but NEED left undone or unsupported. It was really weird to watch and deeply disappointing.
I know the media is a lot to blame, but hey, you come to the game with the media you have. Learn to play the fucking game.
jwb
@BGinCHI: Actually, I’d say it’s about 50/50 whether they get away with this.
General Stuck
I don’t really know that much about state politics, or national for that matter, and I just can’t fathom why busting a public employees union is worth this kind of brazen act and breach with the public trust. It is already a 50 pound donkey on the back of Walker and his winger friends in the Senate.
It wreaks of desperation and an inability to admit defeat, so it’s all in, and if they go down next election, or before with recalls, then they got their pound of flesh, at least.
Bad for WI, but good politics for the national dems, and the ones in WI
It is just another sign, that the wingnut of today, there is no guessing what they might do to keep power for the short term, and banking on any sense of shame or fear of pol blowback on them, cannot be factored in for dems dealing with these crazy motherfuckers.
Ronc99
Angry Lady,
Thanks — Naomi Klein just posted this: “This is a Frontal Assault on Democracy, It’s a Corporate Coup D’Etat” http://bit.ly/fZuuwa.
I’d say it’s Naomoi’s novel, “Shock Doctrine” gone Federalist through out all our states *sigh*
arguingwithsignposts
@mclaren:
Which is why BMW, Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, etc. have all built plants in R2W states. That’s not a coincidence. Union-busting is still a big player, despite low-wage foreign imports and automation.
Mr Stagger Lee
Nah nah nah nah, Nah nah nah nah SCOTT WALKER!!! ASSHOLE!!!
Nah nah nah nah, Nah nah nah nah SCOTT WALKER!!! ASSHOLE!!!
Hawes
Sorry, I meant to say earlier that this is excellent news for John McCain.
PeakVT
@chris: None of this should be litigated unless the result might be criminal convictions. This absolutely should be played out at the ballot box.
mclaren
@JC:
This is the old “blame the victim” scam.
“That whore asked for it! She came onto me, that six-year-old slut forced me to do it…”
Come on. Can we please stop blaming the victim? For once? And start blaming the evil sociopaths who deserve the blame? Walker? Norquist? Rove? The Chamber of Congress’ disinformation campaign?
That’s who we should blame. Not the victims.
jwb
@Tom Q: I’m sure Koch, Inc. will fund into perpetuity all those who take hits for the team.
Tom Q
@Violet: Okay, I don’t seriously disagree there. Though I think this WI story has actually revealed just how slanted our media coverage is against reality. Once the polls showed up dramatically anti-Walker, many of the major networks just dropped coverage. Tonight, ABC News led with the motherfucking O’Keefe video, and I was reminded that they never once played the fake-Koch phone call. What does a progressive do to overcome a news blackout like that?
Let me say, though, that I’d still argue it was the crappy economy far more than death panels that led to last November’s grueling results.
Bob L
Probably railroad it threw knowing the courts will kill it and then they can tell Teh Base(r), sorry, activists judges.
Violet
@asiangrrlMN:
Oh heavens. Be creative. “That drooling, darting-eye weasel Walker and those gelatinous, bloated, fleshy cretins that claim to be humans and Republicans rammed the bill up the collective fecal cavities of Wisconsinites.”
See, not a naughty word in the bunch.
arguingwithsignposts
@mclaren:
I will actually agree with mclaren on this point.
debit
@asiangrrlMN: Creative cursing. May you drink the ichor from a thousand pus filled scrotums, things like that.
Elie
@Violet:
WE the people have to become the message machine. NOT for Obama. In the end, he is limited in power and limited in duration. But people power is not
WE had better figure out how to fuel this “message” and the power around it or we will have nothing.
I am an Obot — to a POINT. But we had better make him do right and make this whole thing work or he and we are just a footnote.
Obama will retire, one or two terms, with a great pension and the ability to pen great books.
We will be left with this THING we call our government, and its impact, or not on our FUCKING lives.
He is a cool dude and all that. I truly not longer expect him to lead the save. The Wisconsinites get it completely. Power, will follow them just as money follows resources in business.
Lets wake up and stop the bullshit (mine included).
Scales have fallen from my eyes
SiubhanDuinne
@OmnesOmnibus: Please stay safe and warm. And thank you.
jwb
@Kryptik: They can probably undo this in 18 months if all the recalls are successful—though, as I understand it, they will also have to recall the assembly in order to get laws through there as well. On the other hand, Koch, Inc. will be flooding the airwaves in WI for the next year, so who knows how folks will be feeling even by the time Walker is eligible to be recalled. Even with this massive overreach, I don’t think the odds of recalling Walker are better than 50/50.
Sasha
If you haven’t heard already, the WI Senate Majority Leader pretty much admitted that this was about defunding the Democrats and making Obama a one-termer (via ThinkProgress):
Baud
@Tom Q: Thank you. I’d give my left nut to have half as productive a legislative session today.
Omnes Omnibus
Assembly Dem lawyers are working to get all doors opened. Lots shouts of “Strike!”. Did I mention the anger?
@ Cacti: Fuck you.
Tom Q
@jwb: And there are always people on the liberal side who are convinced the Pubs will never pay a price. I remember talking with two guys the Monday after Nixon fired Cox; they were both convinced Nixon would ride it out without incident. Wrong.
asiangrrlMN
@Violet: That’s very nice. I like it. I’m too mad right now to think of anything but swears, but I’m sure my creativity will start flowing again when I calm down a bit.
@debit: I like this a lot, too. You guys are an inspiration!
Violet
@Tom Q:
I agree about the slanted media. The best I can say is that online reports, like real, on the ground reports from people on Twitter, Facebook, etc. are changing the game. It’s not changed, but it’s changing. It’s harder to lie when there is video and live reports.
But again, it’s not like Obama and the Dems didn’t know about the slanted media. You play the game with what you have. They should have been prepared and been ready to fight using the slanted media and running endgames around them. It’s possible to do, if they wanted. They didn’t seem prepared for it.
Southern Beale
Wisconsin Republicans headed to D.C. for a big fundraiser next week.
I’m sure there will be much gloating and chest thumping and such.
bemused
Meanwhile, Walker is joyfully serene because he always follows what his lord tells him as he has done all his life. The lord picked his wife, his jobs, etc.
I don’t know what his lord’s timetable is to sell off the whole state but asap is my guess.
chris
@Violet: Where’s Nick when you need him?
jwb
@Mike Kay (Ding-Dong-Broder’s Dead): Except the other side has an lot more cash and effective control of the airwaves. The recall procedure in WI is extremely difficult and it remains a crap shoot, especially since I’m sure we’ll be hearing anti-union crap and pro-Walker and pro-GOP fluff stories spouting from the airwaves nonstop for the next year.
jl
TPM reports an email from a reader in WI, that ANY bill with fiscal implications needs a quorum, not just official budget bills. So, when the collective bargaining bill is challenged in the courts, and the governors office wants to defend it, it will have to claim that the collective bargaining bill does not, in fact, have fiscal implications.
In other words, Walker will have to implicitly admit that he has been lying through his teeth about the reason for the union busting parts of the bill.
Any WI state gov mavens out there agree with that take?
Link to story below.
Link to the story below.
Pretty Audacious
TPM
David Kurtz | March 9, 2011
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2011/03/pretty_audacious.php?ref=fpblg
Note: not sure it is clear from ABL’s post, that both bills passed without a quorum; the Democratic state senators did not come back.
Southern Beale
Hmm don’t know why my comment got embargoed. Let’s try it again:
Wisconsin Republicans are headed to D.C. for a big fundraiser next week at the offices of a lobbyist.
I’m sure there will be much gloating and chest thumping and such.
Joel
Well, let’s put them down.
Omnes Omnibus
The Wobblies are posting general strike posters. I feel like it is 1912.
priscianus jr
@Violet:
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus:
Awesome. Thanks for the report from the scene. I was seeing “general strike” stuff on Twitter. It’s for real, huh? I’m getting chills.
jwb
@stuckinred: Still got to get a judge to agree to take it up. I think that’s going to be the hard part.
stuckinred
IN other news Newt was a fucking adulterer because he loves America.
Aaron
@mclaren: This again reinforces my point that the majority of the republican platform is oriented around cheap labor
Little Boots
what a disgusting move by this disgusting man. heading down there. this is so crazy, especially for this state.
Wisconsinite
It’s the end of Wisconsin as we know it and I feel fucked….
Cain
@Violet:
You don’t need the national media.. you got a twitter feed. When Obama came here, I got everything from the twitter feed including videos, comments, and what not. A lot more honest and balanced than the news.
You want to fuck those guys, turn the goddam tv off. Starve them of cash. When they start cutting salaries to Broder and others cocktail washington insiders then we can see a change. These guys have never witnessed a hardship in their lives they have no perspective.
I’ll keep repeating myself on here. Turn that shit off. You want to be informed, there are a lot of other places to go. We need to set up a new set of information middleman that is a lot more fair and balanced that we can trust.
cain
priscianus jr
@Jim:
stuckinred
@Cain: Soon as the final four is over.
Original Lee
@jnfr: My rather mangled point was that there doesn’t seem to be a good way to toss a law out that was passed using illegal procedures without letting it actually become a law first.
Texas Dem
Question: If this procedural trick (what Dave Weigel calls the “nuclear option”) was available all along, why did the Wisc. GOPers wait so damned long to use it? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to do this weeks ago, before the Dems ginned up so much outrage and anger? Doing it now, after nearly everyone in the state knows what’s in the bill and what’s really going on, smacks of utter desperation by the Wisc. GOP. And it makes a mocker of the Gov’s argument that this was about fiscal prudence.
beltane
@Southern Beale: Flash mob, anyone? Gatherings of corporate whores and their pimps should always be greeted by an outraged citizenry.
JC
Well, if people don’t wake up, and start en masse standing up against the corporate borg rolling over them, that’s where we will end up.
Jesus, other countries are putting their lives on the line – admittedly because the pain and frustration level is much higher – but the citizens in the U.S. also need to be willing to put it on the line.
asiangrrlMN
@stuckinred: Aren’t all adulterers “f***ing”? I’m just saying.
@Little Boots: Are you at the Capitol? If so, please stay safe.
mclaren
@General Stuck:
The answer to that one is pellucidly clear. When you want to tear down a building you start at the bottom and work your way up.
Robert Reich lays it out pretty clearly.
First, Republicans crushed and disenfranchised the blue-collar workers. “Too bad you’re out of work, buddy, you should’ve gotten a college degree. You deserve to unemployed. Suck. On. This.”
Of course a college degree wouldn’t have helped the unemployed auto workers keep their jobs when the robots came in, but why bother pointing that out? As Ronald Reagan so memorably said, “Facts are stupid things.”
Then the Republicans moved on to crush and destroy the white collar workers. Undermine the foundation, then start knocking down the walls. White collar target numero uno: public union workers. The rest of the white-collar professionals are already in the crosshairs with computers + algorithms automating their work out of existence, as Paul Krugman has been pointing out recently (Ezra Klein column that links tothe Krugman op-ed, since they’re both worth reading). So the non-government white collar workers are going to get fed into the automation meatgrinder soon enough. That means the only obstacle to the complete decimation of white collar work is the public employee unions.
The final stage of the process that began with tearing up the foundation and knocking the walls is to rip down the roof. That involves crushing and disembpowering the remaining top 20% of the workforce, the lawyers and doctors, and don’t deceive yourself…that’s coming.
Once the party of the billionaires has crushed the bottom 99% of the workforce and rendering them utterly powerless and destitute, we’ve got a name for that:
…It’s called `feudalism.’
Want your family to eat this week? The local billionaire would like to spend the night with your 12-year-old daughter. Send her over to his yacht.
Droit de seigneur, baby.
gbear
@Omnes Omnibus: More power to you guys. God I hope that your voices thunder fear into those assholes.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Cain: Dude, Broder died.
VidaLoca
Neither one, actually. It’s nominally elected but in fact bought and paid for by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. WMC has been working this plan for the past 10-15 years and they pretty much have the majority locked up. We can’t expect much in the way of judicial relief here.
SIA
@Omnes Omnibus: Keep us posted. I am about to internally combust.
Little Boots
@asiangrrlMN:
Not yet, thanks, hear it’s getting intense. bus comes soon.
celticdragonchick
@debit:
Abso-fucking-lutely.
If I were teaching in Wi, I would walk out tomorrow. The National Guard can teach the English Lit and Earth Science classes. Fuck ’em.
Tom Q
@priscianus jr: And there’s no way for them to un-know it. This is why I think the standard “six months is a lifetime in politics…” doesn’t apply. Just as (as someone referenced above) Pete Wilson permanently moved a chunk of CA Hispanics into the Dem column, Walker has moved another batch of people, who believed Republicans might go after other vulnerable people but would never go after THEM.
stuckinred
@Little Boots: Howie Fineman thinks that this is a set-up to provoke violence so’s they can paint dems as, yikes, 60’s radicals in the next election.
Cain
@mclaren:
I’d like to smoke, snort, and drink whatever you’re having! People still have to vote you know.. you need to throw in a couple of wars and more boogyman to make your vision happen.
Midnight Marauder
@mclaren:
Naive, uninformed voters are far from victims in circumstances like this.
Mike Kay (Ding-Dong-Broder's Dead)
general strike is counterproductive.
This will ultimately be decided at the ballot box by recalling the fuckers, and for that, you’ll need the retarded low information indies on our side, which means you don’t want to alienate them with a general strike.
Martin
@Just Some Fuckhead: There will always be a Dean.
birthmarker
@General Stuck: Because the goal is to privatize the public school system. Nation-wide. It won’t happen immediately. Slowly. This is just a necessary first step.
There’s a memo out there somewhere that I wish someone would leak…
asiangrrlMN
@Little Boots: Stay safe. Post as you can. We’re with you in spirit.
Violet
@stuckinred:
Sheesh. The 60’s? That was half a century ago. These people never got over their teenage/college years, did they?
General Stuck
@mclaren:
Take the fork out of your head.
Little Boots
@stuckinred:
yeah have to admit avoiding that will be a struggle but i still hope we keep it peaceful
Little Boots
can’t wait for the bus. taking a cab. Union Cab, natch.
Tom Q
@stuckinred: I heard him say that, and thought it was, even by Fineman’s high standard, one of the stupidest pieces of analysis I’d ever heard.
mikefromArlington
What scum.
He just stole food off the table of teachers to give to Koch.
Congratulations lazy Dem voters and those thinking they were teaching Obama a lesson by not voting.
The crazies are now in charge.
beltane
@Cain: Thank you for that rant. I’m so sick pf people complaining about the national media, hoping they will one day “do their job”. They are doing their job, it’s just that their job is to do public relations for the same corrupt, insatiably greedy assholes who support Walker and all the rest of them. That. Is. Their. Job.
No one gets paid millions of dollars a year to report The Truth. No one. Our media is just a slicker, more deceptive version of Egyptian state TV, or the state media of any two-bit dictatorship. Expecting them to be anything else is as naive as expecting your dog to drive your car and go grocery shopping. They are our enemies and must be treated as such.
David Koch
@stuckinred: it’s a transparent inflammatory move to goad the peaceful posters into losing their cool. This is what I want. In fact I will send in agitators to commit violent acts to assure they protesters look bad and lose political support.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason (formerly frosty)
@asiangrrlMN: How about QQQQ?
What’s that spell?
Four …
stuckinred
@Little Boots: Watch out for Tommy the Traveler
celticdragonchick
@Tom Q:
How so?
b-psycho
@Omnes Omnibus: Good. I hope that idea spreads so far that the entire country is brought to a fucking halt.
There needed to be a resurgence of wobbly style labor action. If it happens to take a state worker fight to trigger it, irony, but so be it.
chris
@VidaLoca: That’s why I come to this blog! I looked it up on Wikipedia…but figured someone here would know the rest of the story. Thanks.
stuckinred
@David Koch:
I was born
in a crossfire hurricane
Texas Dem
@Tom Q: Exactly. This is the sort of thing one doesn’t easily forget, especially if you’re a firefighter, police officer or otherwise GOP-leaning voter who just saw your wages and benefits gutted. Many people only learn from experience. You can tell a child not to touch a hot stove, but some of them do anyway. Yet once they do, and get burned, they never forget. The Wisc. “nuclear option” is somewhat like what happened with health care reform. The Dems were able to pass it over vehement objections, but the bitterness and anger that resulted lit a fire under the opposition that burned hotter than the sun. Phyrric victory indeed.
stuckinred
@b-psycho: rotsa ruck rudi d red
gbear
@beltane: Your dog doesn’t do that?
General Stuck
@birthmarker:
That’s like setting yourself on fire, to get a better tan. Nah gonna happen, or if and when it did, we would be in Mclaren’s dystopian nightmare of raging feudalism. Which I do not discount the possibility of that at some point.
But I’ve become a little more hopeful lately. Every time the wingnuts puke funnel something like this out of apparent desperation, it is like a Sunday School class to the rubes on what the GOP is about and are after. They only win with the slow con, not by taking the Roulette Wheel and using it as a frisbee.
Tom Q
@celticdragonchick: Because he had maybe two minutes to speak about the ramifications of tonight’s fairly cataclysmic action — one that most of us feel will put a WI GOP already on the ropes into survival fights — and what he chose to talk about is some roundabout way this might be twisted to play against the Democrats. It had a heavy whiff of “This is excellent news for John McCain” about it.
General Stuck
I guess roul ette is a banned word. Please release me, let me go.
Just Some Fuckhead
@mikefromArlington:
There is no evidence this had anything to do with anything. In fact, it appears Obama’s core constituencies failed Democrats through simple apathy.
stuckinred
@Tom Q: I guess the notion that he could be right doesn’t count for much?
VidaLoca
Well, not that I disagree but I’ll believe it when I see it.
I’ll take a wild-assed guess here that I saw the wobblies that Omnes is talking about when I was in Madison a month ago — and they sure looked like UW students to me. Bless their hearts and all but I’d be surprised if they’ve even organized one shop.
lacp
Well, here in PA the voters have been given pretty much what they asked for – Corbett campaigned on budget cuts and no tax increases, and that’s what his proposed budget has. Judging by the comments at philly.com and KYW’s website, the mouth-breathers think this is definitely the bee’s knees: sticking it to the poor and minorities (who they seem to feel are identical), letting us keep our hard-earned dollars, freeing business from the shackles of high taxes and too much regulation, blah-fucking-blah-blah. Are they in for a big surprise.
celticdragonchick
@Tom Q:
I don’t get that from it. The GOP has been banging the “SEIU thugs” and union violence meme for years. Fox News has been desperately trying to film union people beating up anybody.
I would absolutely expect the GOP to try to provoke a violent reaction.
Emerald
@JC:
Only in free and fair elections. Republicans now control Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania, not to mention numerous other smaller states.
Do we really expect that those states will have free and fair elections in 2012? They stole the 2000 election in Florida. They stole the 2004 election in Ohio.
The Republicans have not yet quite finished looting this country four ways from Sunday. They want it all. They’re going to try to get it.
stuckinred
@celticdragonchick: he no likey Howie
And Another Thing...
@mclaren: Wisconsin’s citizens are getting the government they elected.
Mike Kay (Ding-Dong-Broder's Dead)
@Tom Q: That’s all true. At the same time, an over reaction, such as a general strike would play into their hands. And his analysis that this is what Walker is trying to do with the procedural violations is right.
Violet
Interesting:
stuckinred
@And Another Thing…: They voted with their emotions.
donnah
I read a report at MSNBC and read a few of the 1000 comments. Guess what the Republicans are saying? This is payback for “ramming Obamacare through” and “paybacks are a bitch”.
really.
stuckinred
@donnah: Again, you are surprised by this?
asiangrrlMN
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason (formerly frosty): Ooooh, melikey. It’s subtle and somewhat puzzling. I may have to use that.
Donald G
As the Blogfather used to be so fond of saying back in the days I was a tainted with wingnuttery: “Tar, feathers, now!”
Texas Dem
@Tom Q: Unless the Dems are planning to riot and turn Madison into Newark or Watts, I doubt the GOP will be able to turn this to their advantage.
beltane
@gbear: No, not my dog. I wouldn’t put it past my cats though.
Studly Pantload
We are all Angry Black Ladies, now.
General Stuck
Walker has shown the world what a leader can do with the bully pulpit, and manly fighting spirit. If only Obama could learn to be more like Scott Walker, we would be basking in liberal nirvana about now. Sigh.
Southern Beale
And here I thought the NPR James O’Keefe crap would be the worst thing that happened today.
Well, on the bright side, Pamela Geller was also fooled by O’Keefe’s fake Sharia website.
beltane
@donnah: They only only understand the language of violence, of “payback” and “ramming things through”. Republicans are “at your feet or at your throat” kind of people-they need to be put under someone’s boot.
Cacti
@donnah:
Yep, rammed it through in 18 short months, which wasn’t enough time to read the bill.
ms badger
@Southern Beale: That’s actually pretty weak tea (bad pun intended). $1,000 to $5,000 for a DC fundraiser? You can do that in Colorado, fer x’s sake. What a bunch of chicken shites!
Mark S.
Man, I hope this is Doug trolling at Althouse:
In an earlier comment, he helpfully gave the URL of Fox News.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@stuckinred: Isn’t that about the stupidest thing he’s said yet? I loved this observation:
mcd410x
Civil war has already begun. Only question is if the Left will show up.
General Stuck
It’s the Cheesehead Ft. Sumter.
liberal
@Mike Kay (Ding-Dong-Broder’s Dead):
Heh. The above is how I learned DB is dead.
Tunch
Wheee, thanks for busting the old Reagan / democrat coalition!
I guess that’s what Wisconsin gets for voting for republicans. Lesson learned.
I think the blow back is going to be huge, and it’s going to have to be.
New Yorker
You know, I sometimes wonder why I ever care. I’m the upper class. I’m Ivy League educated. I have an MBA. I make almost twice the median household income in New York City. I’m not the one who is going to be fucked by the GOP.
Why should I waste my breath screaming about the 30 years we’ve spent turning into a banana republic in terms of income inequality if the same people who are most going to be fucked by that trend go and vote Republican because FOX News just did an expose on the threat of gay Muslim atheist illegal immigrants?
This better be the moment when blue-collar white America turns against the GOP….
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Tom Q:
And Gov. Napoleon Heartland(TM) has done the same thing in Ohio. It’s gonna get real interesting, though I suspect not pleasantly so.
liberal
@General Stuck:
Except for the fact that Obama is a centrist, not a liberal.
Omnes Omnibus
Inside now. Constant chant of “Our House!” going on. Restrooms are locked still. It’s loud in here.
Violet
@New Yorker:
Because a stable middle class is what allows you to be safe. If the middle class is gutted and the poor become hungry and homeless with nothing to lose, they’ll come for your kind. If the morals and ethics of supporting income equality doesn’t appeal, then working for your own safety, and that of your family, should.
The rich are stupid if they think revolution can’t happen here. And no one is safe when it does. All the walls and servants won’t keep out the angry mobs forever.
arguingwithsignposts
Live feed from inside the capitol building here.
ETA: If ever there were a time for the phrase “Shit just got real,” I think this might be it.
BGinCHI
@General Stuck: I like this. First shot fired in the anti-Confederacy class war.
If I had a magic wand, I’d wave it and have Obama make raising taxes on rich people his #1 priority.
Let’s outnumber the rich and reinstate some real working class values.
stuckinred
A working class hero is something to be. . .
Davis X. Machina
@arguingwithsignposts:
Walmart stopped cutting meat in all of its US grocery superstores when it looked like the meat-department employees in one of them — one store — looked like they were going to join the union. The equipment sits there in my local Wal-Mart, unused, after five years. Everything comes in pre-cut, pre-packaged off-site, non-union.
Just Some Fuckhead
@liberal: He looks like a liberal to lifelong Republicans like Stuck.
stuckinred
@arguingwithsignposts: feed link no worky
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: Please let us know what’s going on later this week and the weekend.
I hope Cole will step up and rent out a bar for a huge B-J rally in Madison.
Mr Stagger Lee
Aux armes, citoyens,
Formez vos bataillons,
Marchons, marchons !
Qu’un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons !
Liberté, égalité, fraternité,
General Stuck
@liberal:
Nope, wrong. Obama is a centrist regarding process, but a pragmatic mainstream liberal at heart on basic issues. Centrists don’t go to work as a community organizer on the wrong side of the tracks, from Editor of the Harvard Law Review. You folks make this mistake all the time. He is not a liberal ideologue, I will grant you that. And luck for us he isn’t, and the 30 million without health insurance, that may get some of that in a few years.
Davis X. Machina
@New Yorker: Why would they turn against the GOP? They got to keep their guns.
liberal
@mclaren:
Actually, Krugman had a very good column or blog comment (or both) on this.
Automation threatens anything that can be easily routinized. There’s both white and blue collar jobs that fit that, but there are also both white and blue collar jobs that don’t. Take home message: we can’t just focus on education and expect to have a thriving middle class.
arguingwithsignposts
@stuckinred:
Hmm. Try this one. livestream.com/theuptake
Mark S.
@arguingwithsignposts:
Here ya go
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@asiangrrlMN: Or,
4Q
heh
kdaug
And now, for a little minty goodness to cleanse our pallets…
(Not really. They both eat poo.)
(But they really are good dogs.)
Just Some Fuckhead
@liberal:
Duh, everyone knows “job retraining” is the answer to all of our problems.
Mike Kay (Ding-Dong-Broder's Dead)
@General Stuck: Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown.
liberal
@General Stuck:
BS. All of that has a distinct appearance of having been planned.
Yawn. Lib’rals are i-dee-o-logs. People like Obama are pragmatists!!1!
May, may not. And the fact that the Heritage-inspired health care reform will do little to temper the explosion of health care costs in this country stricks me as not so very pragmatic.
gbear
@Omnes Omnibus: Got my stereo cranked in your honor (Lime Spiders compilation). Not sure what else I can do tonight. Best wishes…
arguingwithsignposts
Do you hear the people sing?
General Stuck
@Just Some Fuckhead:
You’re just crushed that hard charging ideologues like Walker have made a complete ass out of themselves and will most likely be drummed out of office sooner rather than later.
That, and being dumb as a fencepost. It is only the hard leftists that turn out to be neo cons. Embrace your inner Horowitz, fuckhead. You owe it to yourself and your folks.
asiangrrlMN
@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks for reporting in. Keep us posted.
@BGinCHI: Seriously. Cole does this, and I bet many of the Midwest BJers would be there.
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Also good. I may just alternate between the two.
liberal
@Violet:
More abstractly, too much inequality of wealth leads to very bad consequences.
Note, however, that the leaders of revolutions are never the truly poor and downtrodden.
Just Some Fuckhead
@General Stuck: I’m an i-dee-o-log, Stuck!
stuckinred
@liberal: I think Jane Hamsher is calling you.
jnfr
Rachel Maddow is fantastic tonight. The video from the committee meeting was shocking.
General Stuck
@liberal:
LOL, go suck on your sour grapes liberal, and take fuckhead with you. The rest of us will take on the republicans, and pumas can pound sand.
NovShmozKaPop
@New Yorker: I know what you mean. I just read THIS: http://www.theawl.com/2011/03/a-blueprint-for-a-takeover-wisconsin-republicans-lied-while-the-kochs-schemed
…and was struck by the part where a teachers union supposedly asked the Republican candidate if he would screw them, he said Of course not, heh, heh, and they endorsed him. Then he screwed them.
Now will somebody PLEASE tell me what sort of working person in their right mind endorses or votes for a Republican in hopes that they will do right by them or their union?
Violet
Could this just be a ruse to get the WI 14 to return to the state? They come back, thinking it makes no difference now, and suddenly the original bill comes up for a vote and look, they’ve got a quorum. Is it a trap?
liberal
@stuckinred:
Never read her or FDL, except infrequently when someone from a site I do read links to something there that sounds interesting (those links tend to be about financial stuff).
Don’t really read GOS either.
stuckinred
@liberal: you were made for each other
BGinCHI
@asiangrrlMN: I would drive up and take a carload.
I’d also buy a bunch of beers, I mean Solidarity Drinks, for folks.
Cole! Cole! Cole!
Shinobi
@BGinCHI: I can be there in a few hours and I have room in my car for Chitown folks who need a ride.
Shinobi
Things I have learned tonight on Twitter:
Jon Henke resides in an alternate dimension.
Some people want WI workers to strike so the unemployed can get some work.
Mike Kay (Ding-Dong-Broder's Dead)
@General Stuck: people who dislike obama are gonna dislike obama no matter what. he could cure cancer and they still wouldn’t move their position. there is no use arguing with someone like that.
BGinCHI
@jnfr: Yeah, just watching that now.
She is killing it tonight.
Man, this better rebound and fuck the GOP in the ass.
“Do you see what you get when you fuck a stranger in the ass, Larry!”
liberal
@NovShmozKaPop:
Against stupidity/The gods themselves/Contend in vain.
jnfr
@Original Lee:
I have no idea how this is going to play out, but I do believe it is far from over.
liberal
@stuckinred:
F*ck off.
debit
Oh dear. Altercation at the doors.
BGinCHI
@Violet: I thought about this, but it’s not gonna matter now.
Hate to say it but it’s optics/perception more than anything now.
Media, please, please don’t fuck this up. It’s easy!
Just Some Fuckhead
@NovShmozKaPop: Any working person that hasn’t learned the lesson of the scorpion.
General Stuck
@Mike Kay (Ding-Dong-Broder’s Dead):
I’m not arguing with anybody. More like making Ozombie declarations of feasting on lame branes.
birthmarker
@General Stuck: What do you think charter schools, school vouchers, and tirades about school choice are?
Here’s a relevant quote from Dick Armey:
The following comments by former Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey, published in the summer 1994 issue of the Heritage Foundation’s Policy Review, exemplify the Heritage philosophy:
“Liberation is at hand…. A paradigm-shattering revolution has just taken place. In the signal events of the 1980s – from the collapse of communism to the Reagan economic boom to the rise of the computer – the idea of economic freedom has been overwhelmingly vindicated. The intellectual foundation of statism has turned to dust. This revolution has been so sudden and sweeping that few in Washington have yet grasped its full meaning…. But when the true significance of the 1980s freedom revolution sinks in, politics, culture – indeed, the entire human outlook – will change…. Once this shift takes place – by 1996, I predict – we will be able to advance a true Hayekian agenda, including…. radical spending cuts, the end of the public school monopoly, a free market health-care system, and the elimination of the family-destroying welfare dole. Unlike 1944, history is now on the side of freedom.”
asiangrrlMN
@BGinCHI: Same here. Personal beverages and all. Livestream from the Capitol here.
ETA: I think the feed just went down.
@Violet: There is some speculation about this. The Wisc. 14 may not be going back.
liberal
@Mike Kay (Ding-Dong-Broder’s Dead):
Where do you get that I have some visceral dislike of Obama? I’m merely saying he ain’t no liberal.
stuckinred
@liberal: don’t let your mouth write a check your ass can’t cash
David Koch
@stuckinred: That Jane Hamsher is not a piece of ass.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@kdaug: Dey is lovely kids. Thanks!
BGinCHI
Jesus, even Howard Fineman was right on Rachel tonight: he said this is also a provocation to get some violent DFH action to happen so that the right can paint Dems and Obama as themselves “radical.”
If that happens, we will be seeing the most giant media failure since the Iraq war run-up.
Shame, shame.
The kind of country the GOP wants is right here, right now.
mclaren
@Just Some Fuckhead:
True dat.
The only two “solutions” bobble-head economists have to this situation is: 1) “go back to college and get more education” and 2) “retrain for another job.”
Neither “solution” will fix the mess at this point.
Nick
@Kryptik:
I’m gonna go with never.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
What Walker is being told he can count on is that by passing this, unions won’t have enough money to cause the recalls or to vote him out of office.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Holy Shit Michael Moore is pissed! I just watched him on Maddow and he rocked it hard. I loved the handcuffs and I would really love to see some frogmarching.
Rich criminals and thieving politicians? No sir, Mikey doesn’t like that.
debit
I think we crashed the server at theuptake.org.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@asiangrrlMN: There is also Bobdammit(TM)–coined by a then 4 year old (mis)quoting her aunt. It’s a house favorite here.
General Stuck
@birthmarker:
It is not news that wingnuts want to destroy public schools and public teachers unions, and ultimately the Dept of Education. However, these things are popular outside the 28 percenter mouthbreathers, and going full frontal destructo has never served their purposes very well. This country recoils from brazen and uncompromising ideological power grabs, and winning this small battle will not win them the war, and could well do the opposite imo.
Omnes Omnibus
State police ushered us down from the third level, but people are back up there and it does not look like they are being asked to leave. What’s it look like from outside?
Just Some Fuckhead
@BGinCHI:
Looks like The Village is setting up a very nice “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t” scenario for the left. Who could have seen this coming?
asiangrrlMN
@kdaug: Awwww! They are so sweet and cute. That was a much-needed breather. Thanks.
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Yes, but that contains a swear in it.
@Omnes Omnibus: Peaceful so far?
Nick
@liberal:
In America, most centrists are liberals
Just Some Fuckhead
@mclaren:
True job security lies in the job retraining sector.
Davis X. Machina
The solution, you will be happy to know, is for Obama to take over the state, dissolve the state government, jail the governor, GOP reps and senators, and call for new elections.
God, spare me from my friends.
arguingwithsignposts
@birthmarker:
The fact that Dick Armey is still breathing is proof there is no God.
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: Livestream showing chanting and folks gathered, kind of like it’s looked before.
I think tomorrow is going to be key.
Mark S.
@birthmarker:
It doesn’t surprise me that Dick Armey is a Nazi.
RosiesDad
The people of Wisconsin elected this asshole by a 52-48 margin. They have to live with him for 12 months before they can recall him but January 2012 is a long way away.
You would think that acts like this would get the GOP sent to the wilderness permanently but the electorate keeps re-electing them despite the damage they have done and continue to do.
And that is DEMOCRACY in action.
debit
@Omnes Omnibus: Are they letting people in? I saw a scuffle at the doors, but it seemed to have been over before the server crashed.
BGinCHI
@Just Some Fuckhead: God forbid they look into causes or fundamentals. Apparently that’s the purview of pajama-wearing bloggers.
jwb
@Violet: Hard to play the fucking game, when the other team owns the refs. I agree that the Dems have to find another way, but blaming it on messaging isn’t going to get us there. We could have the best message and messaging team in the world for all the good it would do us.
BGinCHI
@arguingwithsignposts: More smiting plz god.
Chuck Butcher
@liberal:
Oh don’t mind them, they’re the cheerleaders as the nation drifts rightward. They figure they’re liberal because something to the left of Walker must be liberal. You see, pushing for something more left than what is offered is fantasy and especially if the one pushed is Obama. (not that there isn’t stupid conflation of BO and Congress)
Just Some Fuckhead
@RosiesDad:
When America tires of the Tea Party, another brand new entity like the Christian Heritage party will emerge.
jwb
@General Stuck: The point is to destroy every single institutional base of non-corporate power.
David Koch
My brother and I are thinking about planting some troublemakers in crowds, armed with baseball bats.
birthmarker
@General Stuck: I certainly hope you are right but I think WI is the testing ground. They hate government and the public schools are the big big plum. Parents will get a tax voucher to offset part of the cost of private schools, and a whole new for profit industry is created.
If Walker is punished by the voters in any way he will end up on wingnut welfare.
Don’t forget we privatized a couple of wars…
RosiesDad
@arguingwithsignposts: I always thought that the fact that Dick Cheney was still breathing–and the mother fucker doesn’t have a heartbeat anymore–was proof that there is no God.
Davis X. Machina
@RosiesDad: The one fixed thing in American politics is that apathetic majorities get rolled by enraged minorities all the time. When this comes off the boil in six months, or a year, Walker is home and dry. The people who will crawl over broken glass to vote for him will outnumber the people who will crawl over broken glass to throw him out.
Any political party predicated on an appeal to the worst in people has a built-in edge.
RosiesDad
@Just Some Fuckhead: I think you can make book on that. Because The People are some stupid, masochistic sonsuvbitches.
BGinCHI
@David Koch: Don’t hire the Brewers, they couldn’t hit anything last year.
arguingwithsignposts
@RosiesDad:
Well, the proof keeps piling up, doesn’t it? IMHO, Armey is just as evil as Cheney, and just as insane. Except he’s more concerned with fucking over the unwashed ‘Merkin masses, whereas Cheney is more interested in fucking over the unwashed brown masses elsewhere. YMMV
Nick
@RosiesDad:
Well certainly it’s not because this is a right wing country. There must be some other reason
RosiesDad
@Davis X. Machina:
fixt
jwb
@Tom Q: Actually, I believe today Nixon would have been able to ride it out.
jnfr
@Omnes Omnibus:
Stay safe, please.
David Koch
@BGinCHI: Beautiful.
Actually we using well known mercenaries, the New York Yankees.
beltane
@Just Some Fuckhead: That’s why one should, never, ever take the advice of the Village courtiers. History and current events show us that the one thing the rich and the powerful fear more than anything in the world is an angry mob outside their windows. There has never been a king, tyrant or corporate whore who didn’t secretly shit his pants when confronted by large numbers of angry, vengeful humans.
BGinCHI
@David Koch: Shit dude, even you can’t afford those motherfuckers.
Get the Orioles, they have low self-esteem anyway.
Davis X. Machina
@jwb: Absolutely. I thought the same thing about Nixon when Republicans told me in 2000 that Bush deserved the presidency precisely because he wanted it bad enough to steal it, and all by itself that showed his superior fitness for office, unlike Gore, who was content to follow the law and the Constitution.
“Democracy is for pussies” was the usual formulation.
birthmarker
@jwb: I voted for Clinton, twice, but signing the act that allowed media consolidation was an unconscionable mistake.
Those laws protected our democracy, and now we see the results.
RosiesDad
@Nick: I think Davis X. Machina has it pegged: Enraged minorities roll apathetic majorities. And the GOP message machine does a better job keeping the Villagers angry than the Dems do defeating apathy.
Just look at the turnout of 18-25 year olds in 2008 and 2010.
jnfr
@Violet:
I think that is entirely possible.
jwb
@Texas Dem: I think you have to conclude that it is uncertain that what they pulled here will pass legal muster (that’s why they looked at other alternatives). But it was getting to the point that they needed to do something—I’ll also say that the fact that they went for it in this way suggests to me that they are looking at horrible, horrible polling as far as the recalls are concerned. That’s the silver lining.
General Stuck
@Davis X. Machina:
I certainly am not am optimist concerning the majority American voter, and their apathy so long as the rent is paid and there is food on the table, and gas for the SUV. But it seems to me there are quite a few very pissed off peeps in WI right now, and you are right about minorities rolling majorities as a general rule in this country, but I have to believe there is a point where enough majorities get rolled they will start paying attention. There is no recent evidence of this, though a little in 2008 electing obama, it is just a fuzzy feeling of something changing, though it could well just be a case of intestinal gas.
jwb
@beltane: That and picketing the fucking news media.
John O
All right, I’m in. I’ll be in Madison tomorrow with at least one other person. Emergency no-work day.
Any suggestions on where the action is, and so forth?
David Koch
@BGinCHI: But you Gotta love that Cameron Diaz. She’s a piece of ass.
General Stuck
@RosiesDad:
Democrats still hold the senate and Wh, so somebody is voting for them.
Chuck Butcher
Great news for Democrats…
Maybe 2012 will be blue, maybe not. I can assure you that a couple years later the GOPers will do it again. You might have thought 08 showed some learning going on, then you had 2010. GWB and 08 sure faded from the memory of lessons learned pretty quickly, didn’t it?
Run the way back machine to – oh say, Joe McCarthy or RMN or … choose.
BGinCHI
@David Koch: If she’s gonna be up there with a baseball bat, count me in.
You and your brother need to take up skydiving and maybe dueling. Both fun sports.
birthmarker
@General Stuck: Hopefully people will realize, “Hey, they are coming after me now (or my child, grandchild, brother, sister, neighbor…”)
Davis X. Machina
@General Stuck:
Then you split them — bang, two minorities, where there used to be a majority. Then sic ’em on each other.
This is the genius of crab-bucket politics. If my job sucks, yours has to suck, too. If I don’t have a job, you don’t get to have one. If I don’t have health insurance, you don’t get any. Ditto pensions.
Someone’s sooner or later going to ride this right into the White House.
djesno
WAPO link. David Broder is dead.
Nick
@RosiesDad:
This is WHY America is a right-wing country.
Lurker
@liberal:
Wandering off-topic here…
I’ve been rejected three times by three different insurers for private individual health insurance because of a preexisting condition. I finally formed a general partnership with my spouse last year *just* so that we could apply for guaranteed-issue group health insurance as a business.
The Affordable Care Act may not do enough to control health care costs, but it still solves a MAJOR problem for me. I can’t wait until the exchanges come online in 2014.
Chuck Butcher
Funny considering how things are right now in that I have lived in OH, IN, WI, and MI. I don’t mind a bit that I can use the past tense in that sentence. Or that it is pretty nearly three decades past tense.
beltane
I think we need a new thread.
Nick
@Davis X. Machina:
Yesterday I was at a local civic association meeting where a Republican officeholder here in New York City discussed the impending closures of Senior Centers because of budget cuts. He said, factually, they were closing them because the money was being reallocated to close the gap in childcare, food stamps and welfare. What he then did was basically blame single mothers on welfare for senior centers closing (in this white neighborhood with a history of racism).
He sic’ed the eldery on the single mothers before they have a chance to argue for tax hikes on millionaires.
BGinCHI
@Chuck Butcher: Where do you live now?
Nick
@liberal:
the fact that it ends recession and creates exchanges does. The fact of the matter is no one, not even progressives, are tackling the real reason for the rising cost of healthcare…and the primary reason is not Blue Cross/Blue Shields profits.
RosiesDad
@Nick: Center-right. (God I hate it when I hear that.)
David Koch
@BGinCHI: Beautiful.
Actually we go Hooker Hunting every spring.
jwb
@Davis X. Machina: They may regret that.
arguingwithsignposts
@BGinCHI: He lives in Oregon, IIRC
AkaDad
By stripping collective bargaining rights, the Republicans are creating turmoil in Wisconsin and turmoil is good for economic growth.
I bet businesses are now lining up to bring jobs to Wisconsin!
liberal
@birthmarker:
Nah. It was the gutting of the Fairness Doctrine.
Jilli
Folks, this goes way beyond Wisconsin it strikes at all working class americans, that’s the point that needs to be hammered home. As the unions prospered, so did the middle class – and we declined along with them. Non-union workers will be impacted just as much as the union workers – it’s a historical fact. This is the continuation of the rights assault on the middle class and should be explained as such – in every state.
Boy, these clowns…the ones that claim to be so concerned about the country they leave to their children and grandchildren have really shown their true colors. They have just as much contempt for their own as they do for the rest of us. Some country they’ll leave behind…it’s just pathetic.
General Stuck
@Davis X. Machina:
The GOP is an utter clown show right now, from top to bottom. They won some seats in 2010, in states and congress, that was completely predictable historically for a first term prez first mid term.
The wingnuts are like a hydra monster right now spewing out ill conceived and free associative ideological remnants of the crumbled, though once cogent Conservative Movement. And they are facing a juggernaut of new minority voting power that has yet to fully unfold. And are doing everything in their power to make those minorities lifelong democrats.
They have voter suppression, and a split baby jeevus between the tea tards and old guard wingers, that say some pretty words now and then, but hold court over a cauldron of crazy. Unless they manage to kill democracy dead from destroying free elections, they don’t have a chance at the ballot box going forward. They may spring a surprise or two, but theirs is a disintegrating coalition that was always stuck together with lots of dollar bills and Elmer’s Glue.
If they manage to smash the free ballot into pieces, then we have something different, of politics by other means. Until then, there is hope.
RosiesDad
@General Stuck: Obama convinced young voters to come out and support him because he would be different. (We can argue the pros and cons of how different he is but that was his basic sales pitch.)
The Dems still hold a small edge in the Senate because after many years of Congressional Republicans fucking up, they got tossed in 2006 and 2008. But The People have short memories and the GOP did a good job selling the voting public–those people who actually go out to vote year after year–that it was all the Dems fault. Hence the huge turnover in the House and the big losses in the Senate. And when you look at the Senate majority, how strong is it? I mean you’ve got Dems like Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu and others who are just as likely to side with the GOP on issues important to progressives so is it really a meaningful Dem majority?
Chuck Butcher
@arguingwithsignposts:
Yes, NE OR – which in stuck’s world makes me a red neck racist. Never mind that outcomes in OR politics are somewhat right of me – but compare to the states I listed.
jwb
@Davis X. Machina: Amusing in a post-apocalyptic, Hollywood fantasy sort of way. I especially like that now I see how this is going to end up being Obama’s fault. I also denounce Stalin and the Broccoli Mandate.
jwb
@RosiesDad: Amazing what ownership of the media and access to lots of cash can do for you, isn’t it?
Sad Iron
This move, however, was in violation of Wisconsin Open Meetings Law. It is my understanding that any public business that does not follow the Open Meetings statutes, including publically posting notice of the meeting 24 hours ahead of time, is invalid.
General Stuck
@Chuck Butcher:
In stuck’s world you are a clown, and nothing much more.
Chuck Butcher
@RosiesDad:
You also had a ’10 campaign of “not as bad as the GOP” which isn’t really a winning theme. You know, something to vote for. GOP is good at running ‘against’ as opposed to ‘for’
Tunch
Recall is the only answer now. People have to beat feet and get the work done.
If you want to take action, at least put your money down.
MAKE THEM PAY
Chuck Butcher
@General Stuck:
Oh, there he is. To make it real fucking simple try finding his accomplishments or efforts on behalf of anything. But I’m a clown.
Davis X. Machina
@jwb: The problem with DemocraticUnderground.com is that it’s full of people who left the voting booth in ’08 saying to themselves, “That’s done. Now we’ve got our Bush. Son-of-a-bitch better start breaking shit. Bring on the signing statements! O-man better get us a Democratic John Yoo!”
I understand why they’re angry. I don’t understand why they thought a con-law professor was going to break shit, and are still calling for him to start breaking shit two years on, though.
General Stuck
@Tunch:
All hail Tunch!!
Tunch
RECALL LINK
This one is better than the other I just posted.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Nick:
It’s “rescission”, you moran. And there ain’t no exchanges yet.
SIA
Greg Sargent has a good post up on Wisconsin GOP “shenanigans”.
arguingwithsignposts
@Tunch:
Isn’t impersonating His Tunchitude a federal crime – even a felony?
TenguPhule
Is it too soon to put a Bullseye on Walker Yet?
Nick
@Just Some Fuckhead:
It didn’t end rescission right away either…most laws don’t take effect right away.
General Stuck
@SIA:
I agree with Sargent. Thanks for posting this SIA.
RosiesDad
@Chuck Butcher: You are right. The ’10 campaign should have been “These guys fucked things up so badly, it’s going to take a decade to fix it” and then explain why. But Democrats don’t like to go for the throat.
Davis X. Machina
@RosiesDad: Doesn’t fit on a bumpersticker.
“Fuck off, I’ve got mine” does.
Chuck Butcher
Running away from ACA didn’t help a bit, either. I didn’t much like the bill, but it was a dinosaur in the living room so you have to. Pointing out the good and saying, “I did this for you and it was the best the GOP would allow,” is something better than “… .”
In fairness, the silence wasn’t total.
Nick
@RosiesDad:
aaaaaand right there, you’ve lost.
When you’re explaining, you’re losing.
SIA
@General Stuck: I do too, and I hope he’s right. How is Charlie the Wonder Dog?
b-psycho
@David Koch: But she has no ass!
E.D. Kain
This is insane. Do Wisconsin Republicans not realize how badly this will come back to bite them in the ass?
My take here.
Corner Stone
@E.D. Kain:
Oh thank god. I can breathe again.
General Stuck
@SIA:
Charlie is doing excellent, and thanks for asking SIA :-)
Hunter Gathers
It took the GOP all of 3 months to overreach and shoot themselves strait in the ass. That has to be some kind of record.
Doug Wieboldt
I believe that there are quite a few recall votes coming up. I won’t be surprised that the Walker regime will be emasculated. He’s going to lose a lot of support… Talk about overreach… This is your own problem asshole… Hope you do better in your next job… Won’t be too hard…
b-psycho
@Chuck Butcher: Y’know your blog link has a C where the B should be? It ends up redirecting to a survey scam.
CaseyL
@Doug Wieboldt: He doesn’t care about losing support among voters. His constituency is not the people of Wisconsin; it’s the plutarchs. He’s just shown he can ram through legislation without a quorum. Watch him call on the GOP-only legislature to pass a bill outlawing recalls, and watch them pass it.
Then watch GOP governors all over the country do the same thing.
IndyLib
SEIU is sponsoring a bunch of rallies tomorrow in Wisconsin.
There’s some good options for people who can’t make it to Madison. The Racine location is the closest option for anyone who wants to come up from the Chicago area. That’s the one I’ll be at.
Chuck Butcher
@b-psycho:
I don’t like that since it has changed without my intention, must’ve bumped a key at some point.
Edit: seems to be all better now
tam1MI
No.
The Democrats failed their core constituencies and caused them to become apathetic. If they’d wanted those votes they would have worked for them.
BGinCHI
@Chuck Butcher: Pendleton?
Spent most of last Aug. in Portland and then down around Medford. Lovely.
OR politics are pretty fucked up too. Schizophrenic.
IN has always been a completely GOP state, so no change there.
IndyLib
The link doesn’t work – here’s the text from the email.
Chuck Butcher
@BGinCHI:
Baker City, 90mi S of Pdltn on I 84
djesno
@djesno: sorry, i guess the link didn’t load….
Omnes Omnibus
@CaseyL: Don’t presume that this law will go into effect. Suits will be filed in the morning regarding the violations of WI’s Open Records Law; I am sure they will be asking for an injunction.
djesno
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-me-david-broder-20110310,0,1037101.story
djesno
i guess you shouldn’t click the “link” button if you want to post a link. i dunno, seems counterintuitive.
BGinCHI
@Chuck Butcher: Haven’t been over there. It’s a big goddamn state.
How far from Walla Walla? Probably the most underrated wine country in the world.
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: Best part of that is if they lose in court and have to push it through all over again. They’re gonna look like stupid thugs.
Or, stupider thugs.
Svensker
@Omnes Omnibus:
Stay safe.
Praying for you all.
I just fucking hate what the motherfuckers have done to the country.
Davis X. Machina
@Omnes Omnibus: What’s the long game, though? Injunction granted. Bill goes through the process all over again, this time with proper notice. End of.
Recall, the repeal seems to be the only real fix — and that means keeping WI people on the workers’ side on the boil for a long time. Can it be done? Not that there’s much of an alternative.
Davis X. Machina
@BGinCHI: There’s a problem — there’s a ready-made constituency for stupid thugs, one large enough to support a major political party, and from time to time it’s a large enough constituency to win elections.
asiangrrlMN
@Omnes Omnibus: Keep checking in and be safe.
piratedan
@Cacti:78 but we don’t have a lot of room to talk, we got Cactus Barbie and State Sen “I am the Law” Pearce pulling the same wingnutty strings here.
Scott Alloway
I work for a community newspaper in Philadelphia, PA. Tomorrow I am going to give notice and look for a job organizing the community and unions. Any leads? Time to take action.
I am 60 years old and am sick of the BS these people are getting away with.
BGinCHI
@Davis X. Machina: True, but at least the way this played out the motive and tactics of these assholes have been revealed. It’s always good to be able to see into the process, and many people are getting a sense of what the GOP are doing, instead of just what they’re saying they’re doing.
Raising consciousness is the key. The GOP thrives on low info.
Omnes Omnibus
@Davis X. Machina: Drag out the litigation until recalls go through or fear of recalls causes some Rs to ‘rediscover’ their affinity for fair dealing.
Midnight Marauder
@Corner Stone:
Oh, how I did miss your acerbic wit.
BGinCHI
@Scott Alloway: I hope you find something. This country needs more people to have the courage of their convictions.
Little Boots
damn, people took the capitol. my partner held up a sign to block the view while people were crawling through a window. things were a little less dramatic when I got there. the doors were open, and the place was packed. still is, presumably. I’m assuming people will be spending the night, but I have to work tomorrow. maybe down to one income in this household soon. we’ll see.
Little Boots
i hope those recall efforts work. at least people can’t say they don’t know what these assholes want. all illusions are gone.
Little Boots
anyway, goodnight all. stay safe omnes
Omnes Omnibus
@Svensker:
@asiangrrlMN:
I am back home now. I have documents to go through before some meetings tomorrow. The crowds are huge now; people were still streaming in when I was leaving about a half hour ago. I live fairly close to the Capitol so I was able to get up there quickly and be a part of the crowd demanding to be let in. We needed that, and we need the people who can keep the place open all night. I was able to do one, and I think Little Boots from BJ is now there to do the other.
Omnes Omnibus
@Little Boots: I was one of the first through the MLK Blvd entrance. So I guess neither of us are spending the night.
Svensker
@Omnes Omnibus:
Sleep well. Blessings.
Davis X. Machina
@Omnes Omnibus: El pueblo, unido….
Phoenix
Sounds like it’s time to start stalking up on aluminum foil and steel wool.
CaseyL
@Little Boots: @Omnes Omnibus: Both of you stay safe, and blessings on you and the great unionized people of Wisconsin for keeping up the fight. I hope Omnes Omnibus is right that lawsuits will be flying in the morning.
Chuck Butcher
@BGinCHI: from Walla Walla we’re about 135 mi SE, it is 150 mi to Boise ID on I 84. Hells Canyon is about 50 air miles east
Frank
Hey put your money where your mouth is. $100 worth of donations per balloon juicer to political causes if you never have donated anything. If you do donate, donate 125% of what you did before or more. Talk doesn’t do much.
BGinCHI
@Chuck Butcher: No way Evel Knievil is gonna make it from there.
Oh, wait, that was a different canyon.
Love the WW wines. Pricey as hell though.
You live in pretty country.
Scott Alloway
@Little Boots:
Thank you. It’s time to put feet too the ground. We need to act, with assertiveness.
Brian H
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwY-oUq7nHk&feature=player_embedded
Livestream WI Capitol
http://www.livestream.com/theuptake
Brian H
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwY-oUq7nHk&feature=player_embedded
Livestream WI Capitol
http://www.livestream.com/theuptake
PanurgeATL
@Violet:
You know what they say: The ’60s never really ended. They just got swept under the rug, not really resolved. So they keep popping up. I still don’t understand why liberals just can’t seem to understand that the “the ’60s are irrelevant” line helps the people fighting them. Must be a GenX thing…
Chuck Butcher
@BGinCHI:
No, he tried Hells Canyon though E of here it is wasaaaaaay too wide, but it was there as well.
Cain
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Why the fuck wasn’t I invited to the party afterwards? Shit.. I would have bought rum.
cain
Bob Loblaw
@Scott Alloway:
Helluva plan there champ.
I’m so mad I’m gonna quit my job and become an organizer…wait, does anybody know how to become an organizer?
You might want to sleep on that one…
scav
@Bob Loblaw: You were born supine and helpless and have continued to hone your inner talent at those actions to the point of sheer brilliance because you know it’s better than trying any action that is new and unfamiliar. Congratulations. Poster boy for conservatism you are.
cthulhu
I wonder how the Kochs feel about this turn of events. Sure, this is definitely a result they approve of but I wonder if the means didn’t quite work to their satisfaction. It was my understanding that they have long preferred to be behind the scenes and not become “George Soros-like” figures on the right. In this case, they are strongly linked to Walker’s double dealing behavior and now are likely known to every union member in the country, plus a bunch of other people that had never heard of them. Plus, at least for the moment, the unions are probably about as energized as they have been in several decades. To the extent that some of these other facts may be giving them a little heartburn, I would be happier.
Bob Loblaw
@scav:
You’re right, quitting a job to try to find a paid organizing position on the fly is a totally sensible idea and not at all the product of a Protest Person up past their bedtime.
Phoenician in a time of Romans
I repeat a comment I made on a previous thread:
“Sabotage”.
If people are being screwed over by companies, at what point will they start retaliating by screwing over those companies? Consider just how big a mess the banking industry is in over not having the right paperwork for mortgages – what happens if companies start discovering that two weeks after file clerks resign or get canned, they can no longer find their most critical files?
What if that becomes an organised, national pastime, aimed at the worst companies? Sorta an Anonymous for the working stiff?
scav
@Bob Loblaw: You’re assuming he requires payment and that the financial requirements are the sine qua non of rational behavior. Again, polishing up your poster boy status. It’s always about the personal cash advantage to you lot, no? As to how much this is aspirational or concrete, you’re as much in the dark as anyone.
Odie Hugh Manatee
This smells of desperation on the part of Wisconsin Republicans. It’s almost as if they had to do it or else, whatever that may be. Public opinion has turned against them and they desperately sought a way to get what they wanted, even if it meant breaking the rules.
If this doesn’t have people out protesting and raising hell non-stop then we deserve whatever else comes down the road.
Today’s Republican Party in action: Building a 21st century bridge to the 19th century. Problem is that while they are dragging us across the bridge it’s going to collapse, leaving us stranded.
At least Wingnut Welfare will keep the sellout Republicans rolling in clover while everyone else suffers.
asiangrrlMN
@Little Boots: You be safe, too, Little Boots. Good luck to you and your partner.
@Omnes Omnibus: Glad you got home safely.
Zuzu's Petals
Go straight to ActBlue and give to Wisconsin Democrats. Help them recall that mofo Walker just as soon as legally possible.
tastytone
Cheers from a regular lurker: you all have inspired me to head to Madison in the morning.
Original Lee
@djesno: Until I saw this, I thought y’all were speaking figuratively. Huh.