Defying Koch-Sucking Governor, Wisconsin Town Charges Left

As an atheist in Kentucky, I have no discrimination protections. I can be fired from my job, denied a mortgage or car loan, barred from renting an apartment, thrown out of a restaurant or hotel or gym or public park. I could be turned away from the voting booth.

That I am not is primarily due to a carefully created and maintained reputation as a nasty troublemaker, not to anyone's respect for my atheism.

Scott Keyes at Think Progress:

There is no shortage of hardships that many homeless people regularly encounter, from the apparent — crushing poverty and mental illness — to the more subtle — navigating bureaucracy and finding a public restroom.

But homeless people in Madison, Wisconsin may soon have new legal protections against one of the most nefarious problems: discrimination.

On Tuesday, the Madison Equal Opportunities Commission will consider whether to add homelessness and atheism to its list of protected classes, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

If the measure, proposed by Alderwoman Anita Weier, is adopted, it would protect both homeless people and atheists against discrimination in employment and housing. If an individual or business is found to be discriminating against homeless people or atheists, Weier’s bill would impose a fine and restitution.

Discrimination against homeless job applicants is particularly pervasive, preventing many from breaking out of a cycle of poverty. For instance, though homeless individuals can use the address of a shelter on their resume, some employers are on the lookout for these addresses and avoid such people. Even setting aside discrimination based solely on their status as homeless, such individuals often have major employment gaps on their resume or a felony on their record, severely diminishing their employment prospects. Similar factors prevent many individuals from securing housing.

Notably, though, Weier’s bill only extends protections against discrimination in public areas and places of business to atheists, not homeless individuals. According to the State Journal, Weier opted against extending protections for homeless people because of incidents that have taken place in public buildings, such as urinating or defecating in public.

Hey, Ky House Speaker Greg Stumbo:  Are you sick and tired of all those freakazoid, Koch-sucking, teabagger bills flying out of the repug Senate just to make dems crazy?  Fight fire with fire: Send  the repugs some bills that will make their tiny heads explode. Mandating abortion on demand at public expense.  Outlawing charter schools. Barring all voting restrictions.

Start with one extending civil and human rights to homeless people and atheists.

QOTD

From Firedoglake:

Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT), referring to the unprecedented amount of money spent to fight WI Gov Scott Walker’s recall, says “There is an aggressiveness out there among the ruling class of this country, among the billionaires who are saying: ‘You now what? Ya, we got a whole lot now, but we want even more. And we don’t give a damn about the middle class. We don’t care about working families. We want it all. And now we can buy it.’”

The Repug Message Keeps Winning

Yes, zillions of dollars spent by repugs saved Scott Walker's corrupt ass, but not because all those ads made people like the man who is destroying Wisconsin. Walker survived recall because all those ads reinforced the long-standing national repug message that Dmocratic politics is illegitimate.

Steve M.:

A major reason Scott Walker survived recall is that voters were persuaded that the recall was happening for illegitimate reasons:

So what happened? It's actually quite simple if you look at the exit polls. The final question there was the key to the entire recall election. When asked “Do you think recall elections are appropriate” some 60% of Wisconsin voters said “Only for official misconduct” and another 10% said “never”....

Walker's massive cash advantage painted the recall process itself as the bad guy here...

Funny, I don't remember anything like that happening in 2003, when Gray Davis, a Democrat, was recalled and replaced as California's governor by Arnold Schwarzenegger, at the time a hero to the Republican right. I remember that the recall process was portrayed as a circus. But I don't remember the conversation centering on the argument that recalling Davis was an affront to common decency and an insult to democracy.

As I was Googling around to test my memory of those days, I was reminded that the phrase most commonly associated with the Davis recall -- see it here and here and here and here and here -- was "voter revolt."

Revolt? Wow, that sounds scary and dangerous and violent. It sounds anti-democratic. Ahhh, but it was a voter revolt. That's quite a packed phrase. You say "voter revolt" and you're implying that somehow the guy who's being recalled got there in defiance of the wishes of voters -- even though, obviously, he won an election. The phrase implies that the election was the illegitimate part of the process and the recall is the legitimate part.

And notice that it's a voter revolt and not a conservative or Republican or right-wing revolt. Everyone knows that the people who tried to oust Scott Walker were those dirty liberals. The people who ousted Gray Davis were voters.

That's the message. It's similar to the framing of recent protest movements: the angry members of Occupy Wall Street are a bunch of hippies, but the members of the tea party movement who shouted down members of Congress at 2009 town meetings and revolted at the ballot box in 2010 were righteously angry Americans.

That's how we look at right-wing revolts -- especially when millions of right-wing dollars are available to shape our perceptions.

How to counter that message?

The last of the Rude Pundit's lessons from Wisconsin:

5. We have to nut up and go after them with a savagery that would make a tiger shark shit itself. How bad does it have to be? You might have read about or seen Barrett condemning Walker for a particularly harsh ad. Did you check out the actual ad about crime in Milwaukee? A blurred photo of a dead two year-old? That's some terrible shit. And it didn't appall people enough to turn against Walker. No, it worked. So we have to be at least that brutal. And don't be a pussy and say that we shouldn't stoop to their tactics. You use the tactics that succeed or you lose.

How People Power Will Win Wisconsin

Regardless of the outcome of today's primary election in Wisconsin, and even the recall election to remove Scott Walker in June, people power has already won in Wisconsin.

John Nichols at The Nation:

Politicians charged with resolving various and sundry challenges often claim to be “putting out fires.” But Mahlon Mitchell goes them one better. The Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor of Wisconsin regularly steers off the campaign trail to put out actual fires.

Mitchell, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin union, pulls twenty-four-hour shifts as a lieutenant in a Madison firehouse. “I’m still on the truck, still going to house fires, car crashes, EMT runs,” says the 35-year-old first-time candidate. “I was called to public service, and I always thought I would do that public service as a firefighter. But now the emergency is in the Capitol.”

One of the most remarkable manifestations of the mass movement sparked by Governor Scott Walker’s anti-labor austerity agenda has been the flourishing of a new, more engaged electoral politics in Wisconsin. The protests that drew hundreds of thousands to the streets in February 2011 have evolved into a powerful movement whose petitions for recall elections removed two GOP state senators and have forced Walker, Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and three other Republican legislators to face unprecedented electoral contests on June 5. If Walker, Kleefisch and at least one of the state senators are defeated, Wisconsin will be the first state in history to shift control of the executive branch and the most powerful chamber of the legislative branch from one party to the other in same-day recall eleesters—union members fighting assaults on collective bargaining and the farmers, small-business owners, retirees and students who supported them—are not just forcing new elections. They are forcing their way into the political process as candidates, elbowing aside traditional politicians and old approaches to campaigning. It’s not that the newcomers aren’t raising money, crafting smart messages or buying thirty-second spots. They’re serious contenders. But they are running on the terms of a movement they have built, mounting campaigns that are people-centered, high-spirited and unapologetic in their support of labor rights and economic justice.

And they are starting to win. In addition to Mitchell, the leading contender in the May 8 Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, numerous activists from last year’s protests have entered recall races and regularly scheduled elections. Several of them won county board, city council and school board races when Wisconsin held local elections on April 3. In Ohio, where union activists and their allies overturned anti-labor measures enacted by GOP legislators and Governor John Kasich with a fall veto referendum that won by a 61-39 margin, more than twenty union members have mounted 2012 election campaigns. And national unions like the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) and the Service Employees have established programs to recruit, train and support members to run for local and state posts from Arizona to Maine. Labor unions have always encouraged members to get involved politically, but union leaders have seen a dramatic uptick in interest from public employees infuriated by the anti-labor and austerity initiatives of the Republican governors and legislators swept into office in 2010.

“We’ve got people all over the country who have been energized by the fights over collective bargaining, union rules and budget cuts at the state and local levels in 2011,” says IAFF general president Harold Schaitberger, whose union has taken a lead in recruiting and electing candidates with labor ties and values. “Most of them never thought of running for city council or the legislature. But now they are thinking about it. And doing it.”

Read the whole thing.

You can't change the way things have always been by electing the same people who have always run things.

Why Newspapers Are Dying - Part 8,692

The corporations that own then are suicidally ignorant of how journalism is supposed to work.

Brad Friedman

Out of scores of journalists who work for the Gannett Wisconsin Media-owned Green Bay Press-Gazette, just seven were willing to offer their personal, non-business related support for a recall of Wisconsin's controversial Gov. Scott Walker. They are now being disciplined.

The rest, the vast majority of Press-Gazette employees, all cast a vote for their support of the Republican Walker's fitness to complete his term as governor by refusing to sign the petition for his recall.

How can we now trust them to report without bias on the Walker story they are tasked with covering in a neutral fashion?!

Despite the clear and unethical conflict of interest demonstrated by their support for Walker --- for which the Governor is almost certainly grateful --- those journalist are somehow still expected to cover the Democratic Party and union-supported political challenges against him and his administration in an impartial manner.

Read the whole thing.

When They Threaten to Kill You, You Know You're Winning

Brad Friedman

Several opponents of WI's Gov. Scott Walker have been receiving middle-of-the-night death threats, as they've been circulating petitions to gather signatures in an effort to recall the state's controversial anti-union Republican Governor.

According to WISC-TV/Channel 3000 in Madison...

The threats involved phone calls from an area code in Minnesota. The calls came overnight after Walker's opponents began the recall, said Madison resident Tom Peer, who said he received a call at 2 a.m. on Thursday.

"They said, 'If you don't stop circulating recall petitions, we will kill you,'" said Peer.

A similar call came to Heather DuBois Bourenane, of Sun Prairie. The United Wisconsin recall worker jumped out of bed when her phone rang around 4 a.m. on Thursday.

"He said I had attracted the attention of some very bad people, and my life and the lives of my family were in danger," Bourenane said.

She called Sun Prairie police, who confirmed investigators were working on the case.

But you have to wonder: why the overreaction? Are these lone crazies taking out their inability to function in the reality-based world on a few convenient targets? Is Walker so bugfuck insane he's actually encouraging his minions to do this? Have the Koch Brothers finally made the move from just killing the middle class economically to killing them literally?

How Liberals Got So Close in Wisconsin, and Why They Fell Short

Liberal Prosperity didn't disappear overnight, and we won't restore it overnight, either. But each battle gets us closer, and teaches us lessons for the fight.

Kenneth Quinnell at Crooks and Liars:

While we didn't win everything we wanted in Wisconsin, we scored a significant victory. Of the Republicans the left tried to recall in the state, three of the seven were successful. That's a pretty powerful message, since there were only four recall elections prior to that in the state's history. There are a number of important things we learned last night, or at least, a number of things we should learn...

1. The grassroots can overcome Citizens United-inspired massive spending: Between $20-$40 million was spent by the right on this recall. The results of that were two losses and several narrow victories in strongly Republican districts. This is very encouraging.

2. Money still talks, although the influence is less than it used to be: Alberta Darling is still a state senator because $8 million was spent on her campaign. That's the only reason. Similarly, Rick Scott is governor of Florida because he spent $72 million. Without these large sums of money, these candidates couldn't have won. They have nothing else going for them.

3. Left-wing GOTV methods are inadequate: Looking at the narrow margins in these races (and many other races in recent years) it is obvious that better GOTV could have swung a lot races, particularly in the 2010 midterms. I think it's time to completely, and scientifically, re-examine left-wing GOTV efforts. Learn what works and doesn't work and abandon the traditional methods that don't work. And there are probably a lot of them. Then we need a coordinated and well-funded effort to train everyone on the left nationwide how to do things the right way.

4. Republican districts, everywhere, are mostly just districts where people with good values just don't show up to vote: Can anyone honestly say that there weren't a few thousand more leftists in each of these losing districts last night that couldn't have voted? There is a mountain of evidence that our issue positions are the majority positions across the nation. How do we get that majority to show up to the polls? In every election? If we figure that out, the right is doomed for generations.

5. Left-wing messaging is still inadequate: This is less about last night than it is about the left in general. Democrats did pretty well last night because there was a clear message -- Scott Walker and his cronies are hurting the state and hurting you. That drove turnout pretty well and Democrats picked up traditionally Republican seats. The problem is that message won't work twice. It never does. Shilling and King have to get rid of the crony part of the message now and focus on Walker. But what happens when they have no boogeyman/men to go after? What happens to Democratic incumbents? If they don't have good messaging, they'll be on the wrong side of the anger that is growing with the public.

6. The right-wing agenda is toxic when the public knows about it and understands it: Democrats didn't do well last night because they outspent the other side. And there's ample evidence that the other side was very active in the grassroots, too. So how did Democrats do so well? Because the Republican agenda sucks. And when people know that, anyone who isn't a right-wing ideologue votes against that agenda.

7. Left-wing infrastructure is still inadequate: Last night showed that there has been major improvement in our infrastructure in recent years. Tons of groups helped out in Wisconsin and it made a difference. But what happens when that infrastructure has to focus on 50 states at the same time? The right has good infrastructure in almost every city. They are constantly training the next generation of activists and candidates and funding them to make sure they don't leave the movement. We're nowhere near anything like that. This might be our most pressing need, though.

8. Democrats still don't know how to fight: Why would anyone concede a close election where there are potential shenanigans with the clerk counting the votes? Recounts are not about overturning close elections, they are about ensuring the integrity of the vote. Don't give up until you know that you've lost. Don't assume it because that's the way it looks. Stand up and fight. Even if you lose this battle, people will remember you as a fighter and will support you next time. Quit worrying about what the media and Republicans are going to say about you -- they're going to say that anyway. Get over it. Assume it's going to happen (it always does) and do the right thing.

9. Things are changing because the people want change: The process is slow and very painful. It could be going more quickly and many people who could be doing better should be doing better (yes, I'm talking to you Mr. President). But things are moving in the right direction. They are far from perfect and we are losing some battles in the short run. Wisconsin is a great example of this. Things moved in the right direction last night and now there is a legitimate chance (with a crossover Republican vote) of stopping the most extreme things Scott Walker wants to do. That's progress. And it's happening because more and more people are growing tired of the same old nonsense. Now, our job is to capitalize on that and to increase the pace of that change.

10. The media isn't on our side, but that doesn't really matter: Every election cycle, the mainstream media become less and less important in determining the outcome of elections. People already use the Internet for their information on candidates and use DVR and other technology to skip campaign commercials. And, really, who gets their voting advice from TV pundits? I'm sure some do, but that influence is decreasing.

I'm sure there are other things we should be discussing about Tuesday night, but we certainly shouldn't be upset about the results. We should be encouraged that we were able to take out three Republican districts in very short order and against a tide of money and right-wing activism. There is something going on in America and if we pay attention and approach it the right way, we can achieve the bigger change we want. It isn't going to be easy and it isn't going to be quick, but we can make it happen. Wisconsin showed us that.

Learn from both victory and defeat; apply the lessons of Wisconsin to your precinct, your district, your state.

Win or Lose, Wisconsin Recalls Are Already a Victory for Liberals

Polls in Wisconsin are closing right now, and we'll know soon how many Koch-sucking repug state senators Wisconsin liberals have defeated.

But just by getting us to tonight, they have already won something much bigger and more important.

Steve Benen:

Regardless of the outcome, the fact that these recall elections are even occurring is pretty damn impressive. As Greg Sargent noted this morning, “Wisconsin Dems and labor have already succeeded in one sense: They reminded us that it’s possible to build a grass roots movement by effectively utilizing the sort of unabashed and bare-knuckled class-based populism that makes many of today’s national Dems queasy. Their effort — whether or not they take back the state senate — could provide a model for a more aggressive, populist approach for national Dems in 2012.”

I like it better as a model for similar local efforts. That's where we have to start.

You bet your fucking ass we can.

Two Weeks In, Snowstorm Raging, Madison Protests Bigger Than Ever

David Dayen on the ground in Madison on Saturday:

In what has been billed the largest rally in the history of Madison, over 100,000 people packed the Capitol Square for a “Rally for Workers’ Rights” to protest the budget repair bill and the proposed stripping of collective bargaining rights from public employees. Madison Police told AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale that they estimated the crowd at 100,000 30 minutes before the 3pm rally. As Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary, who graced the stage, said, it’s 40% of the March on Washington, which he attended.

SNIP

The peaceful crowd spanned age ranges, comprised of public and private workers, union and non-union, high school and retired. And it included Madison East High School’s Bradley Whitford, also known as White House Chief of Staff Josh Lyman of The West Wing. He told the assembled, among other things, that “Wisconsin is a stubborn constituency, we fish through ice!”

Also representing AFTRA and the Screen Actor’s Guild were Gabrielle Carteris (Andrea from Beverly Hills 90210) and soap opera actor Robert Newman of Guiding Light. But most of the speakers were Wisconsinites, union members and others opposed to the bill. The Episcopal bishop of Milwaukee, leading a group of faith leaders, said that, as Jesus helped the blind to see, “we must help Gov. Walker to see” the right path on the bill.

There’s a parallel rally continuing inside the Capitol, as the masses are outside. Lines to get into the Capitol are around the block. There’s a live stream from inside the Capitol, put on by the AFL-CIO.

With the snow falling consistently, organizers had to shovel the stage between acts. The snow also fell on a chair set up on the stage, reserved for Gov. Scott Walker. He didn’t show up to claim it.

Click here for videos.

Here's Your New Protest Song

I was just thinking that the only thing the 2011 Protest Year was missing is some good folkie protest songs, when Down with Tyranny brought us this:

Something's Happening Here

Wanna believe? Believe in this:

Protest sign in Madison: "The faith I have lost in our system has been replaced by a faith in the people"

From Digby:

However, while reading those two article together makes it seem that the allegedly populist Tea Party is an up from the bottom movement of ordinary Americans while the "activist" Democrats being addressed by a corporate centrist are driven from the top down, both parties are answering to the same powerful forces. The Tea Partiers are carrying out their agenda the same way that Daley's activist at the DNC are, even if they don't realize it. Nothing the Tea Partiers are doing in any way truly threatens the goals of the oligarchs --- Koch and Murdoch wouldn't be backing them so strongly if it did. The main economic differences between the parties at the moment are between the free market neo-liberals in the Democratic Party and the crude Randian market fundamentalists in the GOP. "Populism" isn't really at play in either of those stories.

But there is something else happening that really does threaten the status quo. Here's Mike Elk, reporting from Madison:

"My father always said during a strike is when we would rebuild the labor movement," said Sadlowski, a veteran organizer whose father famously vied to head the United Steelworkers of America in the late '70s. "We are proving it right here."

Older union organizers have been sharing their experiences organizing in the workplace with students who have never engaged with the labor movement before. Some youngsters have been so inspired that they are talking about dedicating their lives to it.

"Everyday I come down here I just feel like we are winning," said Andrew Cole, who is in his twenties. "We are just a bunch of people standing around a Capitol talking together and singing songs, but through this collective voice we have been able to define the national debate about unions."

Likewise, young and optimistic organizers have been giving older ones, beaten down by years of anti-union actions, new ideas -- and new hope that it might be possible to rebuild the much-decimated labor movement.

Sadlowski has served as a bridge between the two groups, often coordinating communication among protesters occupying the Capitol. "I think what we created here is the first true labor temple" he said. "Coming down to the Capitol is a lot like coming to church. It's rejuvenating; it's a spiritual experience for a lot of people."

But unlike a church, where people go home at night, hundreds of protesters have turned the Capitol into their temporary home. People have been sleeping there overnight since Tuesday Feb. 15. They eat meals there, and go to nearby houses and dormitories to take showers.

In the early days, the Capitol occupation was almost entirely coordinated by the Teaching Assistant's Association, the union of teaching assistants at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. But other unions have become more involved in occupying the Capitol since, organizing groups to clean the building and provide food and supplies for people camping out there. Local pizza businesses have been experiencing a mini-boom as people from all over the country and even the world have called in delivery orders for the protesters, while Midwestern grandmothers with thick Wisconsin accents stop by to deliver trays of food cooked at home. In one back hallway, you can find tables full of food as well as boxes of donated supplies like toilet paper, water, toothbrushes, soap, spare hats, scarves, and gloves that are free to take. This level of organization is what has made it sustainable for hundreds of people to more or less live in the capitol building of a major Midwestern state.

This - this - is the antidote to Bowling Alone.

This - this - is what corporate DINOs should really fear.

This - this - is our hope for the future.

Have you talked to your Democratic neighbors today?

Kentuckians Rally for Wisconsin Union Workers

UPDATE: Hillbilly has the video.

Kentucky is a right-to-work state, I am sorry to say. That the United Mine Workers still have to fight for coal miners on basic life-and-death issues is proof that when Kentucky politicans say they are protecting the "coal industry," they really mean they are protecting the Big Coal corporations, not the miners or their families or their homes.

But hundreds of Kentuckians turned out to support union workers in Frankfort on Saturday:

Several hundred people rallied on the state Capitol steps Saturday in support of Wisconsin public workers, who are battling that state's governor to defend their right to organize in unions and collectively bargain for compensation.

The crowd — including Kentucky school teachers, social workers, postal workers and firefighters — also criticized this state's elected leaders for what they see as the scapegoating of public workers during the recession.

As Gov. Steve Beshear has ordered unpaid furloughs for Kentucky state employees and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, has tried to end state pensions for new hires, there has been a lot of political rhetoric about the drain that public workers impose on taxpayers, said several speakers at the rally.

Many politicians seem to forget the contributions that public workers make, often at modest pay, they said.

"We are the people who teach, we are the people who protect children, we fight the fires, we provide all the services that are needed by the public, and we are not going to stand by and let them ruin us," said Melissa Jan Williamson, vice president of the Kentucky Association of State Employees.

Read the whole thing and see pictures here.

End Game for the Wealthy in Wisconsin

UPDATE Below:

I was going to post on the entirely non-monetary nature of the crisis in Wisconsin, but then Toast Walker went and deliberately created a new fiscal crisis.

David Dayen:

I got a sense from Sen. Chris Larson and some others in Wisconsin that the Governor and his Republican allies had run amok in the Capitol before attention was paid to their machinations due to the assault on public workers. But I didn’t realize how bad it was until I saw this come across the transom:

Madison – Today, Governor Scott Walker signed Special Session Assembly Bill 5 which requires a 2/3s vote to pass tax rate increases on the income, sales or franchise taxes.

“I went to work today, met with my cabinet, and signed legislation that will help government operate within its means,” Governor Scott Walker said. “Wisconsinites can’t turn to raising taxes to balance their own family budgets when times get tough. This bill will ensure that we don’t kick the can down the road for a quick budget fix only to slap a long-term tax hike on the backs of Wisconsin taxpayers. I thank Senator Leah Vukmir and Representative Tyler August for their leadership on this issue.”

SNIP

Being from California, I’m pretty clear what the implications of a Prop 13-style supermajority requirement for taxes will do. It will basically destroy government as they know it in Wisconsin, ratcheting down the ability for the state to collect the revenue needed to provide a basic level of services. If you liked the efficient, responsive government we’ve seen over the last three decades in California, you’re going to love it in Wisconsin.

This is really depressing. The fight is still ongoing over public employee union rights, but without the ability to obtain needed revenue, I don’t see how they’ll matter a whole lot. The state government will say their hands are tied and that they must have concessions, and either the workers will suffer, or the recipients of their services. Revenues, half of what a budget comprises, have now been walled off. This is a budget crisis requiring shared sacrifice, says Scott Walker, but that sacrifice doesn’t extend to any Wisconsinite who doesn’t receive government services.

But that's really just about money on the surface; the real purpose from the beginning has been to eliminate all public services along with the Democratic Party which provides them.

John Nichols at The Nation:

Why, if the state is in so much trouble, did Walker engineer the enactment of roughly $140 million in new tax breaks for multinational corporations, which the legislature passed in January? Why did he rush to reject federal transportation funding that other states – states with similar or worse fiscal challenges -- have rushed to collect? Why, in the very week that he was pushing his budget repair bill, did the governor reject federal broadband development money that Wisconsin's rural counties have been seeking for years?

The answer to all of these questions is that the governor has made his budget decisions not with an eye toward fiscal responsibility but with an eye toward rewarding his political benefactors. Out-of-state corporations, road-building interests that did not want competition from high-speed rail, telecommunications corporations that want to cash in on the demand for broadband all benefitted from the decisions made by the governor in January. Now, in February, the governor says that Wisconsin needs to end collective bargaining for public employees and teachers and alter the way in which the state operates on multiple levels in order to address a fiscal "crisis."

SNIP

Risser is absolutely right. He is right, as well, when he says that: “We now know this struggle is not about the money. Public employee unions have offered many concessions to help solve the state’s fiscal crisis. When those efforts at compromise were ignored, it became clear that Governor Walker and his allies are part of a national agenda, fueled by big-money conservative groups, to destroy the unions at all costs.”

That’s the bottom line: This is not about the money. This is not a fiscal crisis. This is a political crisis. And Governor Walker has the power to resolve it by refocusing on fiscal issues, as opposed to pursuing the political goal of breaking state-employee and teacher unions.

And don't forget the clause in Walker's union-busting bill that hands Wisconsin's public power plants over to the Koch brothers for a pittance.

Susie Madrak:

As Heather already pointed out, WI Gov. Scott Walker's budget fix bill also grants him the ability to sell off the state's power plants with no bids. The Kochs are probably hoping that Wisconsin legislators may pass the rest of the bill in hopes of saving collective bargaining.

Now, we can't know for sure, but it's a pretty good guess that the Kochs the ones who are apparently so confident they're going to own the Wisconsin state-owned power plants, they're already advertising to hire new plant managers!

Energy client is looking for experienced Plant Managers for multiple power plants located in Wisconsin. You need 15+ years of operations & maintenance experience in a power plant environment. You should have at least 5 years of experience managing operations & maintenance teams in an operational power plant. The ideal candidate has experience in a coal fired power plant. Salary is commensurate with experience.

As Bernie Sanders told Cenk Uyger, this is the end game for the obscenely wealthy.

UPDATE: More than two dozen political action groups have teamed up to organize pro-union rallies across the country this Saturday, Feb. 26. Find a really near you here.

Photo of the Day

This one leaves me speechless.



Via Blue Girl, who writes:

The board at Ians Pizza keeping track of all the countries that have ordered food for protesters -- You know Scott Walker is fucked when they are digging deep in Haiti, of all places, to buy pizza for the public employees picketing the state capital in Madison-freakin'-Wisconsin!

Capitalism at Its Finest: Pizza Solidarity for Union Workers

This is so fucking great:


Union hospital workers donate pizza to the Madison protesters.

From yesterday's Wisconsin forum on Democratic Underground:

Ian's Pizza on State St. heads to battlestations!

People have been calling in pizza orders to Ian's on State St all week from the around the country to have them delivered to protesters in the the Capitol rotunda. Today, it reached critical mass. I read this from a local Facebook friend (who I also saw today at the Square):

"Ian's Pizza on State has shut down operations to the public and is now only taking donation orders for pizza's for the protesters. They have received pizza order donations from across the US, Eygpt, Europe - all around the world - to support the protesters. Unbelievable!"

They apparently already have enough orders to deliver to the Rotunda to keep them busy all night. Keep in mind that this is a Saturday night, already one of their busiest.

UPDATE: Here's their Facebook page here if you want to check the running tally of states and countries of donations.

Stand With Wisconsin Workers: Solidarity Events Next Week

Digby:

It's awfully important that the good guys win this one. It's simply not possible for this country to be prosperous and have a decent future if hucksters like Beck, Breitbart and Palin actually manage to do the Big Money Boyz's dirty work and completely destroy liberal institutions.

Here's a list of solidarity events happening around the country next week. It would be helpful if they get big numbers.

There are no events as of right now in Kentucky or Missouri, but there are events in Ohio, Indiana and Iowa, and they're adding new events all the time.

Here are all the facts you need - with background links - to set the teabaggers straight about what's really happening in Wisconsin.