OMG Can Gov. Walker Really Do This?

Highlands · **Posted:** Sun Feb 27, 2011 8:44 pm

from mimi's link

Quote:

Higher-up with AFL-CIO in Wisconsin confirms to me that Wisc GOP senator Dale schultz not voting for walker bill #wiunion

less than 10 seconds ago via TweetDeck

Sequoia32 · **Posted:** Sun Feb 27, 2011 8:51 pm

Highlands wrote:

from mimi's link

Quote:

Higher-up with AFL-CIO in Wisconsin confirms to me that Wisc GOP senator Dale schultz not voting for walker bill #wiunion

less than 10 seconds ago via TweetDeck

Hope it's true, but some are saying it is a trap to get the 14 Dems back. They still need 2 more defectors...

Highlands · **Posted:** Sun Feb 27, 2011 9:33 pm

I love that some of the tweets I'm reading right now have the hashtag #kochblock
:lol:

Plutodog · **Posted:** Mon Feb 28, 2011 2:58 pm

Going Down, Walker!

To the tune and in honor of the old Spiritual,
Go Down, Moses

--By Plutodog

When Walker won in Wisconsin,
Let My people go!
He came up with an evil plan,
Let My people go!

Chorus
Go down, people,
Way down in Wisconsin;
Tell Scott Walker
To let My people go!

An eight hour workday the workers said,
Let my people go,
For this 7 Bay View workers dead,
Let my people go.

Chorus
Go down, people,
Way down in Wisconsin;
Tell Scott Walker
To let My people go!

No more shall we be Walker's bitch,
Let My people go!
Let us never cower to the rich,
Let My people go!

Chorus
Go down, people,
Way down in Wisconsin;
Tell Scott Walker
To let My people go!

State workers know what we must do,
Let my people go,
We'll stand and fight if we have to,
Let my people go.

Chorus
Go down, people,
Way down in Wisconsin;
Tell Scott Walker
To let My people go!

We cannot let our rights be lost,
Let my people go,
We will not climb on Walker's cross,
Let my people go.

Chorus
Go down, people,
Way down in Wisconsin;
Tell Scott Walker
To let My people go!

In solidarity we workers stand,
Let my people go,
We'll bargain or we'll rock the land,
Let my people go.

Chorus
Go down, people,
Way down in Wisconsin;
Tell Scott Walker
To let My people go!

When Walker's time on earth is done,
Let my people go,
Our victory shall have long been won,
Let my people go.

Chorus
Go down, people,
Way down in Wisconsin;
Tell Scott Walker
To let My people go!

Walker says he won't bargain,
Let my people go,
But so did Pharoah 'til the end,
Let my people go.

Chorus
Go down, people,
Way down in Wisconsin;
Tell Scott Walker
To let My people go!

Our voices rise in and out the hall,
Let my people go,
Walkers dirty bill shall surely fall,
Let my people go.

Chorus
Go down, people,
Way down in Wisconsin;
Tell Scott Walker
To let My people go!

The Governor should understand,
Let My people go!
Workers have rights in this, our land,
Let My people go!

Chorus
Go down, people,
Way down in Wisconsin;
Tell Scott Walker
To let My people go!

Oh, let us all from bondage flee,
Let My people go!
We bargain strong, collectively,
Let My people go!

Chorus
Go down, people,
Way down in Wisconsin;
Tell Scott Walker
To let My people go!

We need not always scrape and bow,
Let My people go!
Just to earn our daily chow,
Let My people go!

Chorus
Go down, people,
Way down in Wisconsin;
Tell Scott Walker
To let My people go!

June bug · **Posted:** Mon Feb 28, 2011 3:57 pm

Fantastic, Pluto! =D>

$\:D/$

$\:D/$

Plutodog · **Posted:** Mon Feb 28, 2011 6:30 pm

June bug wrote:

Fantastic, Pluto! =D>

$\:D/$

$\:D/$

Thanks, June! I've been trying to get it out there. It's not a masterpiece, but I'd love to see the Wisconsin workers singing it!

Feel free to pass it along wherever you all post!

mimi · **Posted:** Mon Feb 28, 2011 6:30 pm

Quote:

RT @TheWayForwardWI: #wiunion confirmed by capitol staff: Republican leadership have deactivated copy machine codes for Dems

There's a rumor about them bolting windows shut. I don't think it's true. (The AFL-CIO has posted that on their site too. I don't think that is wise of them to do. )

I understand Fox News has been continually referring to the protesters as "thugs". they keep talking about violence.

Quote:

Fox News just claimed "utter lack of civility" in Madison. Reminder: 14 days, 1 arrest. Sounds like a mad house to me. #weareWI #WIunion

Quote:

Capitol on lockdown as no further protesters are allowed in

Quote:

As of 2:45 p.m., the Capitol remained on lockdown, with only employees, officers and members of the media allowed inside. They are joined by the dozens of protesters who spent the night inside the rotunda, despite efforts to push them out the door.

Meanwhile, Assembly Democrats were attempting to convene a public hearing that would force officials to reopen the Capitol.

According to a statement from the Department of Administration, the building will remain closed until all protesters inside the Capitol have restricted their movements to the ground floor.

Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs would not comment Monday on what exactly the problem was or when it would be resolved. But a DOA statement seemed to target a “family respite center” set up in the north wing on the first floor.

more here:

http://ht.ly/457Bt

Sequoia32 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 28, 2011 9:27 pm

Keith Olbermann has an online news channel, FOK News, here's his latest article - be sure to read the whole thing on his site for the Walker kicker:

Quote:

New York Times Punk’d By Anti-Union Plant (Updated)

Few news stories better spoke to the destruction of union solidarity and the realization that even those public employees collectively bargaining in Wisconsin were going to have to give something back, than the New York Times’ piece a week ago tomorrow titled “Union Bonds In Wisconsin Begin To Fray.”

The by-line was shared by no less than Arthur G. Sulzberger, the son of the publisher and official carrier of the Times’ family name. The piece ran prominently on the front page. Sulzberger himself interviewed the main ‘get’ in the piece. Beyond the mere reporting was the symbolism of the Times - even the sainted liberal media Times – throwing in the towel on the inviolability of unions, conceding that an American state could renege with impunity on a good faith contract with anybody, and that maybe the Right is right every once in awhile.

Problem is, A.G. Sulzberger’s featured disillusioned unionist interviewee…wasn’t in a union.

http://foknewschannel.com/new-york-time ... ion-plant/

Plutodog · **Posted:** Mon Feb 28, 2011 10:54 pm

Quote:

Milwaukee's city attorney says budget repair bill unconstitutional

Milwaukee's BizTimes is reporting that Milwaukee City Attorney Grant Langley has issued a legal opinion that says pension changes in Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill are likely unconstitutional.

http://budget.wispolitics.com/2011/02/m ... udget.html

TollandRCR · **Posted:** Tue Mar 01, 2011 12:15 am

The longer this drags out for Gov. Walker, the worse for him. He seems to be developing new enemies and new problems at a furious pace. I am quite certain that he did not anticipate the strength and resilience of the protest against his union-busting moves, especially that coming from law enforcement. People are beginning to hear and understand that it was not state workers that caused the deficit in Wisconsin; it was rapacious traders on Wall Street and in the banks. In the end, this is class conflict, and it needs to be recognized as such. Workers have much to gain from weakening the plutocrats that have dominated our society for decades and seek now to control it.

Plutodog · **Posted:** Tue Mar 01, 2011 10:47 am

Quote:

Access to the Capitol will again be limited today.

An e-mail sent to Assembly members last night says members of the public wishing to attend scheduled hearings today will have to enter the building through the King Street entrance and will be given a badge and escorted to the appropriate committee room. The number of people allowed to attend each hearing will be limited to the number of public seats in the scheduled room.

Lawmakers and their staffs are also asked to escort constituents to their offices and each office will be allotted eight badges.

Protesters remain in the Capitol despite efforts to get them to leave.

http://budget.wispolitics.com/2011/03/c ... icted.html

mimi · **Posted:** Tue Mar 01, 2011 11:30 am

I didn't see Maddow's show from last night yet. But, I came across this clip which brings me up to date on the Wisconsin protest. I don't know how long things will remain the same, so it's good to see this video.

Plutodog · **Posted:** Tue Mar 01, 2011 2:15 pm

I see a judge has ordered the capitol bldg re-opened!

Suranis · **Joined:** Sat Nov 20, 2010 8:04 am **Posts:** 5244

These guys are making the Tea party idiots look like, well undiciplined idiots. People power, by God!

TexasFilly · **Joined:** Mon Sep 28, 2009 12:52 pm **Posts:** 10644

Plutodog wrote:

I see a judge has ordered the capitol bldg re-opened!

I heard an interview on CNN last night (Washington editor of the Nation IIRC), where it was mentioned, several times, that Wisconsin law requires the Capitol building to be open when there are hearings in progress. Damn those pesky laws 'n stuff.

Edit: Per TPM:

Quote:

Judge Orders Wisconsin Capitol Re-Opened
Eric Lach | March 1, 2011, 12:05PM

Demonstrators outside the Wisconsin state Capitol, February 16, 2011.

A Dane County, Wisc., judge has issued a temporary restraining order to reopen the Wisconsin Capitol building to the public. Capitol access was restricted over the weekend and again this morning, following days in which the building had been crowded with protesters. The Wisconsin State Employees Union, along with the AFL-CIO and AFSCME, filed the suit against the state of Wisconsin yesterday.

Today, Judge Daniel Moeser ordered the building reopened. Court documents posted online read:

Resp. shall open the Wisconsin Capitol to members of the public during business hours and at times when governmental matters, such as hearings, listening sessions and court arguments are being conducted. This ex parte restraining order is in effect until the assigned trial court is able to schedule a hearing on the matter. If resp. wishes to have a hearing with respect to this order one will be scheduled as soon as possible before this court, the duty judge, if the assigned trial court is unable to hear the matter promptly. Pet. shall immediately serve a copy of this order on resp.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/judge-orders-wisconsin-capitol-re-opened.php?ref=fpblg

mimi · **Posted:** Tue Mar 01, 2011 3:51 pm

Robocalls are going out now.

from here:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc ... ors/71878/

A new PPP Poll:
Full results:
http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com ... ainst.html

some blog posts on it:

Greg Sargent:

Quote:

But this nugget may be the most interesting of them all. Non-union households are backing the unions, too:

Union households support collective bargaining by a 70/26 margin, but non-union households do as well by a narrower 51/42 margin. Union households think public employees should have as many or more rights than they do now by a 66/32 spread, but so do non-union households by a 51/45 one.

Again, this is a Dem-leaning firm. But these results are mirrored in national non-partisan polls, which have found broad support across party and income lines for public employee unions.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-l ... attle.html

A bunch more.

=========================================================

Wingnuts keep tweeting that there is not "Right" to Collective Bargaining.

So I tweet back that there is, and it varies.

I send a link to this Ohio discussion:

http://www.ohioverticals.com/blogs/akro ... nt-page-1/

then they come back and say...

Quote:

What abt r Military then - can they collectively bargain about whether or not to obey orders? O doesnt honor r Const. any other time.

meh...skip the "honor our Constitution" thing. She is a birther as well.

Plutodog · **Posted:** Tue Mar 01, 2011 4:23 pm

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir? ... =emailthat out.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Salem-Kei ... 3168086574.

Oregonian newspaper:
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/inde ... onsin.html

Statesman Journal newspaper: http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pb ... 1110226007

KGW TV report and broadcast:
http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Hundreds- ... 83803.html

Edit:

bogus info · **Joined:** Fri Feb 13, 2009 9:19 pm **Posts:** 5484

Quote:

March 01, 2011 09:00 AM
Poll: Over One Million Wisconsin Voters Ready To Sign His Recall Petition, But Walker Doubles Down
By Susie Madrak

You have to hand it to Scott Walker -- he's a wingnut true believer, with the charming personality of a rock and absolutely all the political instincts of a dead fish. Because Wisconsin voters are awake now, they know that class war is being waged, and they're not going to sit and take it:

Quote:

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's explosive proposal to take nearly all collective bargaining rights away from most public workers represents just one piece of his vision for the state's future. Now he's ready to reveal the rest.

With the union rights proposal stuck in a legislative stalemate thanks to runaway Senate Democrats, Walker planned to forge ahead with the Tuesday release of his two-year spending plan that will include major cuts to schools and local governments to help close a projected $3.6 billion budget shortfall.

Tens of thousands of protesters have demonstrated for two weeks against Walker's collective bargaining proposal, which he calls necessary to free local governments from having to bargain with public employee unions as they deal with the cuts he'll outline Tuesday.

more here: http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/ ... nsin-voter

emphasis original

bogus info · **Joined:** Fri Feb 13, 2009 9:19 pm **Posts:** 5484

Quote:

Pension changes wouldn't kick in right away from elected officials

In defending his proposed austerity measures, Gov. Scott Walker has frequently pointed out that the changes would apply to him, his cabinet and lawmakers as well.

Still, budget documents from his office make clear the proposed changes in the pension contributions cannot take effect for elected officials until their next term in office because of a provision in the state Constitution that prohibits pay changes from taking effect during an official's current term.

That means the changes wouldn't kick in for the Assembly until the next session begins in 2013 and only those senators up for election next fall would be affected at the start of the next session.

The rest of the Senate, the guv and constitutional officers wouldn't see any changes until 2015.

-- By JR Ross

http://budget.wispolitics.com/2011/03/p ... right.html

bogus info · **Joined:** Fri Feb 13, 2009 9:19 pm **Posts:** 5484

Quote:

Gov. Walker can use a little-known but constitutional maneuver to break the impasse over unions’ rights. John Avlon on how Walker can get his way even with Democrats boycotting the vote.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has an un-played ace up his sleeve in the budget fights that have made Madison the focus of a national struggle between fiscal conservatives and public sector unions.

A little-noticed provision in the Wisconsin State Constitution—Article 8, Section 8—allows non-fiscal bills to be passed by a simple majority of state legislators, rather than the 3/5th threshold that drove Democratic state senators to Illinois in hopes of denying the Republican Governor the ability to go forward with collective bargaining reform as part of his proposed budget cut package.

This means that if the collective bargaining were delinked from the budget measures and put forward as a separate bill, it could be passed with 51 percent of the legislators—and without Democrats’ participation.

"In layman's terms, what Article 8, Section 8 says is that if you don't have a fiscal bill, then a quorum is a [simple] majority,” Robert Lang, Director of the State of Wisconsin’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau, explained to me. “If the collective bargaining portion were delinked, I believe that could be accomplished."

more here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and- ... 4EB8ZavCv0

mimi · **Posted:** Wed Mar 02, 2011 1:32 pm

Yes, that was posted last week. But, Wisconsin says they won't use that approach.

TexasFilly · **Joined:** Mon Sep 28, 2009 12:52 pm **Posts:** 10644

Quote:

NBC/WSJ poll: 62% against stripping public employees' bargaining rights

Mark Murray writes:Strong majorities of Americans say they are comfortable with states requiring their employees to pay more for their retirement and health care to balance state budget deficits, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

But the public is adamantly against eliminating public employees' collective-bargaining rights -- as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) is pursuing.

In the poll, a whopping 68 percent find it acceptable requiring public employees to contribute more of their pay for retirement benefits; 63 percent are fine with requiring these employees to pay more for their health-care benefits; and 58 percent are OK with freezing public employees' salaries for one year.

But just 33 percent say it's acceptable -- and 62 percent say it's unacceptable -- to eliminate these employees' collective-bargaining rights as way to deal with state budget deficits.
.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20 ... ing-rights

Plutodog · **Posted:** Wed Mar 02, 2011 4:23 pm

Assuming it's legal to split the bill up that way to defeat quorum, I'd also assume the Reepubs don't want to make it that blatantly clear what the plan is -- busting unions, busting middle class Wisconsin workers who also happen to be their neighbors -- sacrificing fellow workers at the alter of the almighty greedy Kochs of this world.

TexasFilly · **Joined:** Mon Sep 28, 2009 12:52 pm **Posts:** 10644

Plutodog wrote:

Assuming it's legal to split the bill up that way to defeat quorum, I'd also assume the Reepubs don't want to make it that blatantly clear what the plan is -- busting unions, busting middle class Wisconsin workers who also happen to be their neighbors -- sacrificing fellow workers at the alter of the almighty greedy Kochs of this world.

Why not? It's what their base demands.

Plutodog · **Posted:** Wed Mar 02, 2011 4:41 pm

Base not big enough for next election win?

Falsehoods unchallenged only fester and grow.

OMG Can Gov. Walker Really Do This?

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