Wisconsin: Voters Slap Down GOP, Female Dark Horse Wins State Supreme Court Seat

Wisconsin protests at the capitol, Madison, in March


From Denny:  An obscure election got the royal treatment from activists and voters. Voters so hated Gov. Scott Walker's controversial anti-union initiatives they came out in droves to defeat a GOP incumbent for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The surprise dark horse vote came for Democrat unknown JoAnne Kloppenburg, down by an astounding 30 points right before the election. She is a state attorney general with support from several unions.

Election officials tallied her win at a razor thin 235 votes over the GOP incumbent of 12 years, Justice David Prosser, who is known to be sympathetic toward Gov. Walker's policies.  Prosser had come out of his primary with a 55 percent vote win.  Kloppenburg was second of four candidates with only 28 percent of that primary vote.  Prosser was expected to experience an easy runaway win - that fizzled because of unusually high voter turnout.

Updates: Wisconsin, Islamaphobia, Newsman David Broder and Political Cartoons

Supreme Court building Image via Wikipedia

Wisconsin

From Denny:  This past weekend 100,000 protesters came out again into the Wisconsin winter weather, committed to carrying the fight to the public court of opinion. While the governor and the Republicans believe they have won they may find they have ignited an Employee Firestorm across America against all politicians.

Recall petitions are gathering steam for the four Republican State Senators that voted against the workers. Another recall petition against the governor is in the works as well, though it cannot be executed until the governor has finished one year in office. Count on it these workers and the unions will be ready and waiting to pounce as soon as the minute past midnight strikes, signaling Gov. Walker has finished his first year on the job.

The workers have also gone to court to question the legitimacy of violating state Open Meeting Laws. No ruling as of yet on that count.

It's clear why the Republican Party has pushed so hard the past 30 years to stack the federal judiciary and the Supreme Court with conservatives they could bribe. What it amounts to is there is no longer any justice in the land for any but the small percentage of the wealthiest among us. If all employees in every sector stick together, unions or not, like they do in Europe, striking as one mass, is the only way to turn the tide of injustice.

Wisconsin Uprising cartoons: 

Wisconsin: Update, The Peoples Uprising Cartoons - 11 Mar 2011

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

From Denny:  Wisconsin Gov. Walker and his Shame Republicans think this issue is closed.  They plan on firing up to 7,000 teachers.  Their state's economy is already rocky and now this idiot governor is poised to rocket it into the abyss.  When the protesters chanted, "Shame! Shame!" they were on target for just how bad local governments have become.  Republicans are hell bent upon pleasing their corporate donors to the tune of wrecking the American economy.

What did the Republicans think they accomplished by "winning the battle but losing the war"?  At present, they basically got rid of the teachers' rights to negotiate their wages and benefits.  Now the governor can set any level for their wages and they have to take it or leave the job.  That is not a choice.  Nor is it American to deny a person free speech.  Our Supreme Court gives free speech to nasty people like the Westboro Baptist Church that screams hate speech at the funerals of fallen gay soldiers.  Yet we cannot seem to give free speech rights to our own teachers.

What a bunch of traitorous hyenas running this country.  The country is set on a slow burn that could erupt like a volcano as this harsh Republican lunacy spreads from state to state.  Already my Louisiana governor is following the Christie-Walker leadership like some dancing puppet for our state budget. Fortunately, he is getting fought from both sides of the political aisle.

Wisconsin: Dark Side Karl Rove, GOP War On Working Families, Anti-Union Ad

Image via Wikipedia

From Denny:  It's official. Karl Rove, the lying hyena Bush political strategist is running an ad against the unions and paid for by the Koch Brothers. They have dropped the pretense it's all about balancing the budget. Now they admit it's all about busting the unions to benefit their billionaire employer handlers.

Of course, the figures are wrong. Even the conservative GOP think tank from which they inflated the figures, Cato Institute, corrected Rove and said he lied.

This lying ad from American Crossroads GPS, the obscenely well-funded Republican super PAC, is a 60-second spot that goes up today.  They take square aim at public employees as well as President Obama because he received support from the unions in his 2008 campaign.

Wisconsin Poll: Gov. Walker Gets Thumbs Down From Voters

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

From Denny:  Talk about bad. Gov. Walker does not fare well in the very Republican-leaning Rasmussen polling. So, you know that polling is really about five to seven points worse than these guys want to tell you since they spin it in favor of Republicans.

Clearly, the Wisconsin protests have taken their toll politically on this governor.  People are furious nationwide and protesting in support of the teachers in Wisconsin. It's just plain un-American to take away a worker's right to negotiate about his wages.  It's un-American to take away Free Speech.

Oh, did I mention how Gov. Walker has stopped payment of the paychecks to Democrats who fled the state?  Seems like those politicians have a lawsuit against him. Walker is still paying the Republicans.  What's wrong with that picture?  It doesn't take much imagination to see what he will do if he succeeds in denying collective bargaining rights to the teachers.

Recall petitions are finally circulating.  Some claim they have up to 50 percent of the signatures necessary to recall the Republican lawmakers.  Gov. Walker is safe from recall until his first year in office is finished.  Guarantee it he will be tossed out when the time comes.  He has left a bad taste in the mouth of the Wisconsin voter.

America Is NOT Broke Wisconsin Speech: Activist Michael Moore

Image via Wikipedia

From Denny:  Sounds like Michael Moore has been listening in to the conversations at our house - or hijacked my keyboard strokes. :) Seriously though, great speech and ALL true! You can read the transcript or listen to the video he posted onto YouTube.

Moore spoke at a rally against Gov. Walker's decision to deny collective bargaining rights to the teachers he has decided to fire. First the public workers lose their rights, then the rest of us across the country watch our wages drop like a rock to ten cents an hour like in a third world country.

Women are now supposed to make exactly what men make for the same job since President Obama passed the new equal pay law when he first entered office. Since then the economy took a nose dive into another Great Depression that economists are afraid to label as such but the middle class knows it to be true. Almost 21 million people are out of work, whether long term or short term since Big Business started sending our jobs overseas. The big joke for tourism to India: "Visit India, Visit Your Old Job."

Peoples Revolution: Wisconsin Update and Political Cartoons

Puppet for the oligarchy Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

From Denny:  The political debate goes on in the cities and the suburbs of Wisconsin. Republicans hate unions, not really understanding if they lose their current wage levels in the public sector the next to lose is everyone else in the private sector - especially those who are not unionized as they will be the first targets. They still believe the hype from the conservatives. Talk about brain washing.

The liberals in different areas of Wisconsin exhibit a strong contrast. They do understand what we all have to lose if America allows Big Business to dictate all terms all the time. Most are in agreement the Wisconsin Democrats only had one option open to them to stop from getting run over by the political puppets of Big Business - take off past the border of the state.

The longer this stalemate goes on the more sympathy the Democrats and the unions and teachers are coming their way.  Currently, support for the Wisconsin governor is quickly eroding from among Independents.  And now, there are at least up to four Republicans willing to cross the line and vote with the Democrats against the governor.  The Wisconsin Senate is 19 Republicans to the 14 Democrats.  A defection of at least two Republicans would be a huge victory.

And the shouting continues... Whew! Democracy is one messy business.

44 Wisconsin Uprising and Federal Budget Fight Cartoons

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

From Denny: Everyone is watching their wallet - or the government's wallet, that is. From the Congressional halls to the state legislatures across the nation all eyes are on how our politicians are handling deficits. Their solutions? Most are Republican controlled and so they passed tax cuts for the wealthy, both on state levels like Wisconsin and the federal level like Obama too.

Tax cuts to the wealthy always bring out the same tired song: take money away from teachers, firemen, police and the middle class that built this country, protect it and teach it. The middle class is the economic engine not the wealthiest among us. Yet it is the wealthiest among us that continue as a scourge upon regular working people.

Well, the working people have finally had enough. The working people have finally figured out just how serious these Republican activists truly are about lowering the minimum wage, union-busting and getting rid of health care. And that's just for starters, folks. These guys are a ruthless greedy bunch, led by the billionaire Koch Brothers, the robber barons of this century.  The Koch Brothers want to concentrate wealth into their hands - which is why they have purchased so many federal and state politicians to do their bidding.  Walker is just one of hundreds of their minions.

Check out the political cartoons expressing the cartoonists' opinion on the news, especially the Wisconsin uprising about the Gov. Walker and the legislature taking away collective bargaining rights from teachers.  Oh, and in case, you didn't catch a previous post, get a laugh at this tidbit.  Gov. Walker sent out a pink slip to the teacher wife of his own GOP Speaker of the House.  Smart move, don't you think?  Bet that guy's wife wants to take a baseball bat to Walker now - you know, that same baseball bat Walker said he reserved for Democratic lawmakers who refuse to bow to this autocratic will.

Today over 70,000 protesters marched in Wisconsin. MoveOn.org organized marches all across America this weekend in support of the workers in Wisconsin. Looks like the Second American Revolution has begun.

As it stands now, Walker still plans to fire at least 6,000 teachers. You think that's bad.  What about Texas?  They plan to cut as many as upwards to 100,000 teachers.  I wonder how many teachers - who vote Republican - will be asking themselves why they believe "in small government" when they are the government.
If not for various services like education and security there would not be much societal advancement and we would be reduced to a lack of law and order.  The kind of "small government" the GOP advocates means no one to enforce minimum wages, all laws in the courts and on the streets, no food safety, no public heath safety, no interstate highways and bridges maintenance.

Everything you take for granted as part of your daily comfortable life would be done away with if the Republicans had their way.  They would turn America into a police state, concentrating the taxpayer monies on military build-up.  Seems like the last country to do that was Russia, formerly the USSR, and all those satellite countries ended up breaking their economy.  As it is, with Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan, it is America that now has too many satellite countries bleeding dry the national treasury.

So, now we hear today that Obama and Hillary want to start sending weapons to the rebels in Libya?  Are they crazy?  That's how the Taliban and Bin Laden got their start when we supplied them during the Reagan years against the Russians in Afghanistan.  Don't these politicians ever read our own recent American history?  Do we really need yet another American satellite country to burden the middle class?




Speaker Boehner and the GOP:

17 American Uprising Cartoons: Wisconsin

From Denny:  Have you heard the latest humor twist on this jerk of a governor in Wisconsin? Turns out the fool sent out a pink slip to the teacher wife of his own GOP Speaker of the House in Wisconsin. Yeah, now when it happens to Republicans suddenly it isn't so funny any more. I bet that Speaker's wife now wants to take a baseball bat to the governor.

The Republican governors in Louisiana (my state), Indiana and Ohio are all backing down from their high horse attitudes of firing every one and taking away their rights. Talk about public outrage and backlash this past week.

I'm sure the GOP strategists are telling them to back off to put this issue to bed quickly before no Republican can get elected. Sure hope they stay stubborn and keep pushing the issue. :) At least now, a lot of people who were never quite sure this union-busting was true are sure of it now. The public is also now aware of just how much our wages are in peril in every industry because of corrupt politicians.

And the Second American Revolution begins in  The Heartland of America: Wisconsin