Thursday, March 10, 2011
Wisconsin Republicans illegally pass bill stripping unions of collective bargaining rights.
This is like watching the Wisconsin Republicans holding a gun to the temple of the middle class and then, while the hostage negotiator is still trying to talk them down, simply pulling the trigger and then going out for coffee as if it was just any other day.
The people of Wisconsin are in an absolute bare knuckle fight for their rights. Yet even with thousands of people in the streets these Republicans are acting with impunity as if they fear no political reprisals at all.
You know the funny thing is that this is EXACTLY the kind of abuse of power and big government take over that the Tea Party is always dressing up like their favorite forefather and protesting against. But with the Republicans, instead of the Democrats, doing exactly what they claim to fear most where are they?
Almost makes you think the Teabaggers are full of shit, doesn't it?
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ARE full of shit!
ReplyDeleteI saw this video last night and I was in shock. You described it perfectly. I live in WI, I'm not in a union. This is an out and out attack on the middle class.
ReplyDeleteDK
How about oligarchy? Like power reeeaaallly goes to their heads.
ReplyDeleteRecall ready anyone!
I sat and cried last night when I heard this. Today our country is not free and not so beautiful.
ReplyDeletethe teabaggers haven't realized they are at the absolute bottom of Koch's pyramid.
ReplyDeleteThey are not members of the elite, they are the serfs.
They fucking ram things through, they don't "govern" but rather act like authoritarian dictators.
ReplyDeleteAnother accurate post - Gryphen.
ReplyDeleteThe BLATANT nature of Walker's corruption is simply...
stunning. He just doesn't want to be 'scooped' by the Gov. of Michigan, who might please their partisan & corporate masters more quickly.
Do we know for a fact whether the ability to outsource public utilities is in the part that was just 'passed'?
What do you know about the supposed 'illegality' of what's just happened?
DK in WI,
ReplyDeleteI do fervently hope that you in Wisconsin will get out the RECALL rope and get it done. In the world of money meaning everything, one man one vote still has to count for something. Get it done, we're behind you.
Stand this domino back up and cement it in place.
BP in OR
Bastards. And they are TOTALLY full of shit.
ReplyDeleteI sat watching tv last night just shocked by what they have done in Wisconsin. Now the riot police are gathering in Madison - what do you think the Governor is going to try to do next? Doesn't take much imagination does it.
ReplyDeleteAnd for all those TeaBaggers who voted in the Republicans, you have created a huge problem by empowering corporations - you just having figured out how used you've been.
Michigan is next - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41998710/ns/politics-more_politics/
And now your Republican congress is witch hunting Muslims in America - ably led by an known IRA (aka terrorist group) collaborator and sympathizer.
These are sad days for the American people.
The total disresprct for the rule of law is revolting. The legislation that was passed authorized the governor to sell Wisconsin publicly owned utilities for what ever price he wants - And that is not a fiscal policy? This is facism.
ReplyDeleteAs Wisconsin Senator Scott Fitzgerald publically stated - the goal was to destroy the unions to weaken the support for President Obama in 2012 - the disical crisis was bogus.
Unfortunately, teabaggers are too stupid to understand what is happening. They think they are winning when the unions lose. It is apparent that they think they are future millionaires and they are just making sure their future fortune is protected.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, they are the very bottom of the rich man's pyramid.
For all of those private sector union workers who are in favor of this assault against unions you might want to consider what the white collar boys in your companies board rooms are talking about today. Don't cry foul when your collective bargaining rights are bulldozed away. Got what you voted for. The coup de etat of the American population is underway. Soon enough the Kochs and the rest of the super rich will simply take over and all the years you spent yelling about the lack of free elections in places like the USSR will be our truth.
ReplyDeleteProud to be an American? Not if this is going to be the new American way!
ReplyDeleteOT,
ReplyDeletewhat is taking sarah so long to say something really stupid about obama's comments on bullying?
she cannot let anything slide without some snide remark.
bill in belize
What was illegal about this vote was a violation of Wisconsin's open meetings law. The GOP only gave 2 hours notice when it has to be 24 hours. They also cut the collective bargaining part out of the budget so that they did not need a quorum present to vote on it, just a simple majority. That action proves that this was never about balancing the budget, but consolidating power. The recall petitions are going great, by the way. Some are approaching half the needed signatures and we still have 50 days to collect.
ReplyDeletewait... what?
ReplyDeleteThey passed that bill without a quorum?
In order for it to be legal to pass the bill, it would have to be fiscally neutral.
But if it's fiscally neutral, then what has the Governor been talking about all this time?
Was he lying about it being a budget problem?
Or is the bill illegal?
...I'm confused.
I too was sickened when I heard this last night. I'm so sorry Wis, Idaho, Ind and Mich, and all the other states this has happened to. They want to march across the world starting wars, saying this is the best place to be, when it is a joke. I've been telling my dau the last few months they remind
ReplyDeleteme of Hilters. This is so dangerous, I hope see people open their eyes. This is why they want stupids who see nothing but abortion and gun rights. The corps got billions and billions from the tax payers and are making record profits, and this is how they repay the american people. I think we should see they are golbal Corps and do not have our interests( It's like sleepng with the enemy) All the tax breaks they got and will get, go into the politions pockets, bribery. They are doing away with people rights. Mich and has the right to disolve a town no mayor and hire a corp with no limit they can get paid to run the town. What so you think will happen when everything possible comes from the corp? If you do not do what they want they will have thee ability to cut off job, food , education. They can just disolve the school system and people will be begging to and willing to do anything to get the child some kind of education. THEY ARE AFTER CHILD LABOR. Stop and think of the bills they are trying to get through. Making rape laws weaker. MAking sure that no one has a right to birth control or abortion. They want family member or anyone to turn woman in who might have lost baby. Saying women should be at home taking care of all those babies. When things get so bad people will be desperate, they will sell or bound out their children. We hear about parents selling children now. There is already child sex trade all over the world, even here in america we hear of it. What will happen when everyone owes everything imaginable to the corps??? Talk about killing the american dream.We already heard of this with that privite security corp in AfGanistan or Iran, provided boys at a party for the party goers. They have no moral fiber. If any one of these rebuplicans that did this think they are religious , they are no better than the satan.that's who they really worship.
The US is not broke. The richest corporations and richest people do not pay their fair share of taxes. And the wealth was redistributed upward to the top 2% in the greatest welfare giveaway in history in 2008, when the taxpayer saved the criminal banking system and their Wall St. hucksters-- who defrauded the public while bringing down the world's financial system. Not one of them has been indicted yet, never mind sent to jail.
ReplyDeleteThe states are bankrupt now not because middle class workers asked for too much, but because state pension plans are bankrupt since they were invested into hedge funds that were bankrupted in the crash caused, again, by Wall St.’s fraud. Tax revenues are also off because jobs--especially ones with decent wages-- are in decline.
And so feeling they can act with impunity, and emboldened by the Supreme Court's recent corporate-friendly ruling inCitizens United, corporations and people like the Koch brothers have overreached themselves, counting as they were no doubt on the secrecy in which they operate and the power of their money they miscalculated In Wisconsin. The billionaires and their tools have been exposed for all to see.
Ending collective bargaining had nothing to do with "balancing the budget" as Wisconsin's governor repeatedly claimed it had. This is very clear as WI Repubs separated the collective bargaining item from the financial part of the bill in order to ram it through without the Dems' presence.
The end of collective bargaining is part of a move to destroy unions and has been on the agenda of lawless corporations since day one. Every worker in the US has benefited-- from workplace safety laws to laws against child labor--thanks to the prior work of unions.
Many union members were killed in the 19th and 20th centuries trying to secure better conditions for US workers. Take away the unions and see how fast we return to sweatshops here, and child labor, and no middle class to speak of.
And while we're on the subject of cheap US labor--the US federal prison system (Unicor), as well as some states, are using what amounts to slave labor in prisons. While a few are reaping huge profits and taking jobs from the marketplace there's also a vested interest in locking up more and more people. The US currently has the largest number of incarcerations in the world--most of them people of color, the poor, the mentally ill--jailed for non-violent crimes such as drug addiction.
The power is with the people. The plutocrats know that which is why they spend heavily on PR propaganda and buying politicians. The people have awakened.
What is also horrifying (maybe even more so) is the law just passed in MI (or some other state) - where the Republican Governor can now assign ANYONE he wants (at a huge salary even bigger then his) to take over a town or city and just eliminate ALL other elected officials - so the appointed guy would be the only one in charge - and all the govenor needs to do is declare a state of fiscal emergency to order it to be done! That is truly frightening and I'm shocked folks are not in the streets protesting that law.
ReplyDeleteThis is not just about union rights and WI - as was pointed out on Rachel Maddow last night - this is also about the fight for 2012 elections.
The Rethugs are gleeful with the footage they are getting and will edit for their ads - they want to stir up the middle class and working folks so much that anger and hateful signs are seen (even if just a few) - they will use these (and I'm sure edit in their own progranda images also) to try and get votes from independants in 2012 by pointing out that we don't want to have government cave in to extremist like those on the "left" seen in WI.
Hopefully this plan will backfire! But never underestimate the short term memory of the voting public.
We must do all we can to fight for the rights of unions and the middle class - to keep the truth front and center - to keep all events peaceful and not over the top with hateful signs - to keep the conversation and debates civil. Each one of us can do our part to remind those who agree about these points and the long term bigger picture, and in our dealings with those who disagree to keep our tempers in check.
I sure hope that this doesn't turn into an incident like happened at Kent State many years ago but if the Guv has called the riot police it could very well be similar.
ReplyDeleteThese Republican/Teabag Governors are acting more like dictators than Governors. Imagine the outrage by the right if the President pulled something like this.
When I heard what happened, I was up till 2am watching Rachel, Ed, Chris and Lawrence. This fiasco in WI, along with the atrocities in Michigan, make my blood boil.
ReplyDeleteI live in Texas, where we have apparently already lost the battle. Our Lege is cutting funds to schools and forking over billions to companies via tax breaks. We even have a 'rainy day' fund that our (R) governor refuses to touch. Might ruin his hair. It does no good to call or write my representatives; I just get a canned reply saying I am doing. what. they. tell.me.to.do. bot bot bot Sick. sick.sick.
I have an aunt who is a tea party activist who is worried about Sharia law. Sharia law?? When governors can dissolve a school district and privitize its leadership? and you're worried about Sharia law. You're right, Aunt Pat. You may need those guns, water bottles and duct tape after all. But it will be your own party taking over your life, not scary Muslim-looking people.
Did you see the actual vote? That was surreal! I don't know how those Republicans got up and walked from the table without vomiting. They will never live this down.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the teabaggers are full of shit, I know they are. They are hypocritcal old farts who want to go back to the '50's when blacks were subjected to their whims. I'm white and think they are disgusting and make me ashamed to be white. I'll stand with the Muslims, African Americans, Asians, Hispanics ANY DAY of the week.
ReplyDeletecraigtamy
I couldn't sleep last night. I am just sick to my stomach. What's worse is the low-paid workers who are happy about the union-busting and don't see the big picture. One ignorant person actually said that they don't want any of their tax dollars for public workers. Who will pay for them then? They actually think their taxes will go down. It's sad. I was on the boards last night and there's a lot of ignorance out there.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans successfully set half the middle class against the other. They are mad at the teachers, not mad that any of their tax money that's saved is going to Corporations to work for free for two years in WI. FREE. They successfully hypnotized people to be jealous that the other guy has a double wide verses their single wide, and completely ignore the corporate fat cats with the billions of dollars and 12 mansions and yachts down the block.
Another blog mentions the dangers of Fascism in American written by Vice President Henry Wallace in 1944 -- it's scary how it relates to what is going on in 2011!
I cannot take part in the recall, because my state senator is one of the fabulous 14. True American heroes. I will do whatever else I can, though.
Sarah is Mister Rodgers compared to Scott Walker.
A corporate billionaire, Scott Walker, a teabagger, and a union guy are sitting at a table with 12 cookies -- Scott Walker gives the the corp. billionaire 11 cookies and tells the teabagers to "watch out for the union guy, he's going to take your cookie!"
We need to keep a close watch on Reince Priebus, the new head of the Republican Party and the mastermind behind the 2010 Republican takeover in WI. The key to the takeover was misrepresentation and lies.
ReplyDeleteIn light of everything going on with those brave protesters in Wisconsin: I'd ask that everyone Google "Triangle Shirtwaist Fire." It's the 100th anniversary of this pre-union NYC sweatshop tragedy. Timely and very, very sad--and yes, the wealthy owners of the company got away with it.
ReplyDeleteTo all ignorant Baggers/Xtreme RW-ers who happily scoff at unions and collective bargaining: those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Hope you'll enjoy working alongside your young kids and elderly Grandmas/Grandpas in horrible working conditions for hours at a time for meager pay and NO benefits. It WILL happen, but only if we let it.
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/
ReplyDelete"Republicans are acting with impunity as if they fear no political reprisals at all."
ReplyDeleteI keep telling this story because it is true. Back right before Nixon' reelection I was driving down I35 in N Texas between Dallas and Waco. I was in a dead spot for Dallas radio so was flipping the dial and ran across a talk show where two men identified as republican party leaders, (probably on a local level)who were discussing the Republican party's plans to amend the Constitution after Nixon's reelection to end term limits and to allow Nixon to be elected President for life. Watergate is probably all that stopped that from happening.
Same type of scenario before Clinton was even sworn in there were Republicans in Texas referring to Duhbya as President Bush, and cheering about how they were going to impeach Clinton.
I have see any number of local and state level stealth candidates in Texas and Oklahoma. I have seen local and state school boards taken over by religious conservatives in Texas and Oklahoma. This happened over a period of 20 to 30 years.
Just look at the Supreme Court (Read John Deans "The Rehnquist Choice.") That take over has taken 30+ years to accomplish.
All this stuff the Repuliba are doing now has been well planned, is well financed and they have already planned in advanced to be able to block any counter move by Democrats or by unions. Just like we are seeing in Wi.
Republican have been letting their dirty little secrets (death panels are now in Arizona and Florida, people have already died) slip out here and there and the press and Democrats just laughed. Republicans have been going after unions at least since FDR. Remember Reagan ran against FDR' New Deal ad LBJ's Great Society.
I have been yelling Nazis, Hitler etc for over a decade. It's here folks. This is the Republican Blitzkrieg against Democracy in this country.
This is exactly what this country needed.
ReplyDeleteThe middle class has been lazy and complacent, watching the rights of the lower working classes erode and doing nothing, figuring it would never happen to them.
Well, it's happening now. And the upper classes figure oh, it will never happen to them.
Well, the middle classes are paying attention now. And they are royally pissed. Not just in Wisconsin, but across the nation. The GOP is going to be very sorry they unleashed the baggers and they're going to be very unhappy they allowed them to get elected. The voters have learned a valuable lesson. Be careful what you vote for. This time, I don't think this lesson is going to be forgotten. I think it is going to resonate straight through 2012. Not only is it going to backfire on the Republicans but if the Democrats aren't careful they're going to feel it too. If they don't grow a backbone and start fighting for what the people want they will be out too. There are other candidates.
If I was in the Green Party this is the time I'd be out drumming up membership and contacting unions.
Oh, and watch membership in unions increase. Watch new unions cropping up.
You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.
And once it's gone it harder to get it back.
Walker is going to be very, very sorry. Those 18 Republican legislators in Wisconsin are going to be very, very sorry. The Democrats shouldn't have any problem gathering enough signatures in record time to recall everyone they can. And when the year is up, they'll kick those out too.
Wisconsin is going to be so solidly blue now and for decades to come. This lesson will not soon be forgotten.
Another thing this has done is to unite people across party lines. Whether you're Republican or Democrat, a union member or non-union, people are standing together to protect the working rights of ALL workers.
If I lived in Wisconsin, I wouldn't be going to work today or tomorrow. I'd be encouraging every single public employee to shut down the state for two days by staying home. I'd also be at the capitol every day choking the building and screaming during legislative session constantly so no business could be done. I would keep up the pressure. If the unions got together they could organize groups and rotate them to keep protester in the capital every day until the recall elections.
It brought me to tears last night when this happened. There was no warning, two hours from the time it was posted to the time it was voted on hadn't even elapsed.
ReplyDeleteI am a public sector employee and it just sickens me. We are good people who work hard and do not deserve to be treated like this.
They are nothing more than cowards. After the vote the Republicans who voted for this atrocity made their getaway on a Madison Metro bus. That's right folks, the jackasses who voted to strip collective bargaining from public sector workers in Wisconsin hopped on a bus that was driven by a union employee. And like any good public sector employee they did their job, even though it must have made them sick to their stomach to drive these weasels to an undisclosed location where their vehicles were parked.
Here's the article: http://tinyurl.com/4s8lkah
Or you can go directly to the YouTube video, it's quite loud at times: http://tinyurl.com/4b29bep
The Koch Brothers and right wingers have been plotting a lot of this turmoil for years. They got the right supreme court for Republicans, elected Republican Governors to get things like this union busting done, got the teaparty started as a PRETEND grass roots movement to stir up trouble, are trying to cut Social Security / raise the age, try to cut medicare and medicaid.
ReplyDeleteThe republicans are not your friends unless you are rich. Middle class and poor folks are cutting their own throats voting for these suckers. Everybody better wake up and see what is going on before it's too late.
DebinWis.
ReplyDeleteYou can take part in the recall. You go to the polls and you vote NO. You will NOT recall your representative.
Finish your story. And while the teabagger is beating up on the union worker, Walker gives the last cookie to the CEO.
Anonymous at 10:10 am.
I've been yelling Fascism.
This is an example of how Americans can't think and plan long term. They only think to the next year or the end of the term. Yes. Absolutely there has been secret right wing faction that has been planning this takeover for decades. They've had a few setbacks but have been patient and worked around them.
I'm afraid it's too late now. The corporations have taken over and we'll never be able to take our country back.
I'm a teacher close to retirement. I never made much money and my pension will be meager. I'm afraid that after I retire, I'll have to continue to work at a much lower paying job until I die.
I can't help but believe that God didn't put me on this earth for the sole purpose of working until I die.
I also think corporations are the antichrist. All of their characteristics are in direct opposition to those of Christ.
ImnoFred.
If a Kent State incident happens in Wisconsin the GOP is done for the next 50 years. We will NOT forget and they will be punished at the polls. No amount of Citizens United money will cover that up or spin it away.
If the Wisconsin public employees stage a strike, the govonoer will hire "private sector" employees. This is their real goal.
ReplyDeleteThe unions must work, or they might just never get to return to their jobs.
I would think taking it to the polls will be the thing to do. Until then, maybe a slow down. And, I don't know, accidently losing reimbursement requests from these jerks and making them resubmit and ask for their reimbursements for meals, airfare, etc. 2 or three times over.
Imagine if the those jerks had to wait an extra 30 days for their reimbursements.
I went out and collected signatures last weekend for the recall of the senator in my district. She lives in my town, and many people know her.
ReplyDeleteOf the people I talked to, 82% signed the recall. I think the 8 senators up for recall just sealed the deal.
I hope we can recall Walker next January.
DK
As bad as this, it is nothing to what is going on in Michigan. THe governor of Michigan now has authority to disolve, city and county governments ans cease all of the assest. Today they fired a cities entire police department. Disaster capitalism at it's best. Richard Nixon's excuse was "national security."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.americablog.com/2011/03/maddow-michigans-governor-wants-power.html
And then there is Peter King's Muslin trials....Peter King got his training working for McCarthy back in the 1950s.
I haven't had the stomach to watch this and still don't, as I've been dealing with a family emergency. Just want to send up my solidarity with the people of WI (IA, MI, OH) and hope that the American people wake up.
ReplyDeleteI'm sick over WI and terrified for my state, MI. I don't know a single liberal or progressive person to talk to about it. Thank goodness for blogs.
ReplyDeleteBack before the Presidential election, I wrote to a long-time (regrettably kool-aid drinking] friend about my concerns. I'd like to send her some of the links mentioned here, esp. the eloquent speech about Muslim Americans, to prove my point, but it would do no good. I feel so alone with my fears for my country.
With respect to the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, there is a heart-breaking video about it on pbs.org. There are actual photos of the fire and its aftermath that are so hard to watch. The owners of the company, who had refused their workers' efforts to join a union, were found not guilty, pocketed their insurance money, and vanished.
@Olivia, 6:38 A.M.:
ReplyDeleteI have also encountered some hopeless boneheads who are cheering Walker and his ilk, not considering for a moment that he doesn't care about them either. The presence of the Tea Partiers on the political landscape is instructive for demonstrating that intelligence, integrity, and empathy for people are critical qualities. I sincerely hope that Wisconsites recall not only Walker, but also the craven state senators who voted with him.
@Olivia, 6:38 A.M.:
ReplyDeleteI have also encountered some hopeless boneheads who are cheering Walker and his ilk, not considering for a moment that he doesn't care about them either. The presence of the Tea Partiers on the political landscape is instructive for demonstrating that intelligence, integrity, and empathy for people are critical qualities. I sincerely hope that Wisconsites recall not only Walker, but also the craven state senators who voted with him.