1.  I hope the awakening is happening.
2.  I hope beyond hope the Democrats get on the lower 98 side instead of the upper 2.

Maybe now when I tell my super-conservative family members that Republicans are a bunch of thieving, lying, brown-nosers for the obscenely rich they might actually, I don’t know, vote for someone else.  But I doubt it.  Their hatred for poor people, black people, and gay people far outweighs any rational consideration of the fact that Republicans don’t give a shit about their well-being.  Hopefully the rest of the country isn’t so fucking backward that they won’t finally see through the Republican smokescreen of fear and prejudice.

by defining the collective bargaining rules as non-budgetary in nature they were able to go ahead and pass their stripped down bill.

I don’t see how this can stand—collective bargaining may not be budgetary in and of itself, but any businessperson with a lick of financial sense (and I know that this excludes the Galtian tycoons who go into GOP politics) understands that it impacts a budget in a big way. It may be politically expedient to make-believe that it isn’t, but it’s not just the reality-based community that’s gonna wake them up to that reality.

This union-busting nonsense doesn’t just affect one trade, like air-traffic controllers. And it isn’t confined to one corporation. If Walker and his FOP cronies think they had trouble getting 14 Dems to come in for a vote, they’re going to have even more trouble getting teachers, social workers, court clerks, and a whole host of state workers (and municipal workers acting in solidarity) to show up for work or working to anything more than rule. It’s not like there’s a table to negotiate at now that Walker chopped it into firewood.

As blind as people like progrocker’s conservative relatives can be, when their kids can’t graduate on time or they can’t renew their driving licenses or pursue that lawsuit or incorporate their businesses, many conservatives like progrocker’s relatives (not most, because it takes some major stupid to be a rank-and-file Republican or Teabagger) start looking at the common factor in all these strikes.

Pols like Walker can fight tooth-and-nail to the last breath because they know the worst case scenario: they lose re-election and have cemented their status as folk-heroes of the right. Even if Walker is political poison for national office, he will have carried water for wealthy corporate ideologues who will make sure there is a well-compensated sinecure waiting for him.

It’s infuriating to me to hear conservatives say things like, “Everyone has to tighten their belts,” when I know they are just flat out LYING.  Every single Republican voted last week to keep the oil subsidies in place.  2/3 of corporations exploit tax code loopholes to avoid paying income taxes.  The working class supports this country with its labor and then we’re taxed for it, to boot.  And I’m supposed to believe that teachers are the freeloaders.  It makes me want to scream.

Also, the righties are running with this rumor that protesters broke windows and ripped doors off their hinges at the Capitol building last night.  Don’t you believe it.  It’s utter bullshit.

To paraphrase Admiral Yamamoto, they have awakened a sleeping giant, and filled him with a terrible resolve (I hope)!

To paraphrase Admiral Yamamoto, they have awakened a sleeping giant, and filled him with a terrible resolve (I hope)!

They really have. Walker’s given them no other option with this idiotic stunt. A general strike is unworkable on a national level in this country, but it’s possible in one state.

Now the fugitive Dems will return, vote against a now-fantasy-based budget on that very basis. The budget will pass none-the-less, Walker will call the unions to the bargaining table to effect it, and one union after another will shrug and say “where is this bargaining table of which you speak?” Weeks later, ‘round about mid-June, when Wisconsin residents usually look forward to a summer vacation knowing that the kids will be graduated and there are no snags to business resuming when they get back, Walker’s gonna be under some serious pressure.

If the unions aren’t planning something of this nature, and aren’t stocked for the duration of the siege, and aren’t establishing links with private-sector unions, then their demise will be their own fault.

This vote was illegal. Wisconsin has an awesome Constitution, and the part about open government *requires* a 24 hour notice unless there is good cause.  If there is a question about whether or not it is a good cause, the government is required to provide a 25 hour notice.

Did. Not. Happen.

The lone Democrat in session pointed this out and was shouted down. He read from the current Republican attorney general’s statement. 

This bullshit is invalid under the Wisconsin constitution.  Yet somehow the GOP is the party of “rule of law” and true Merkin patriots.

I really hope you’re right and that this particular overreach is a bridge too far for every single working person in America. But I have my doubts.

Progrocker is right that there are a hell of a lot of folks who will vote their racist resentments. But let’s not forget that the republicans began the year by offering up sexually active women on their altar of sacrifice. Do not count out the right wingers who will vote to “save the babies” regardless of what it does to their own economic well being. I will never forget a woman who was profiled on NOW a few years ago. She had been laid off, her husbands hours reduced to part-time and they were in danger of losing their home. They had three children aged 15 and under. The woman admitted that she voted republican because she is “pro-life”. That is the exact moment in time that I stopped trying to understand these folks or feeling the tiniest bit of sympathy for them. Because I don’t see how you can look three kids in the eye and tell them that they might be living in a homeless shelter soon, but you don’t have enough sense to vote your own economic self interests to try to keep that from happening.

People who think that controlling sexually active women or making sure that people of color never have the privileges that they enjoy, deserve what they get. And when they’re collecting unemployment or some other form of government aid, I don’t want to hear a single syllable from any one of them about how hard it is to make ends meet in this economy. The economy they created by voting for their own racist and sexist resentments.

I received an email from Fair Wisconsin at 5:49pm yesterday saying “We need you NOW at the Capitol, and in the Senate Parlor room ASAP.” By the time I reached the Capitol at 6:02pm all doors to the building were shut, and this was the scene (the chick on the right is me). The State Troopers (y’know, those guys who pull over people from Illinois on the highway in Wisconsin for Driving While FIB) were called in to hold the doors - Madison PD and the capitol police were refusing (according to what I heard from my friends inside) to clear the building. I later made it into the building through that same entrance at around 8, when the troopers left and someone on the inside ran over and opened the door.

The Assembly Democrats attempted to set up a hearing, going so far as to have a confirmed room (225NW) but the hearing was shot down and allegedly the building should have closed at 8. We spoke to a capitol police officer at about 9 who said - and I quote - “it’s so loud in here I can’t make out a thing [on my radio].” Plausibly deniable bullshit :D

Everyone at the capitol last night signed a petition of complaint against the vote (which violated process as mentioned by Caren @8). Whether that will mean an actual investigation will happen or whether that just means that they now have my address and phone number for fining us for being in the building after hours…

“Consider that the top 400 wealthiest Americans have a combined wealth that’s almost equal to what the bottom 153 million Americans have.”

I remember Rand Paul was on the Daily Show the other day and repeated the bullshit stat of how the wealthiest Americans were paying a third of the taxes and how that was too much.  But when you calculate how much money they actually have and make every year, they aren’t paying enough taxes.

Did they pass only the union-busting provision, or also the part about being able to give away state-owned facilities to their friends?

It’s blatantly illegal, it’s blatantly against what the citizens of the state want, it’s an obvious rethuglican shitbomb.  Is this sufficient grounds for a recall vote? (When the time comes, that is). I don’t know much about the recall process.

I read somewhere that after Reagan “broke” the air traffic controller’s union, there were more plane crashes.

Not that the MSM made the connection, but breaking unions makes all of us more unsafe and drags the economy down.

In my experience (I’m a Canadian), when people go on strike in BC because the government is breaking their contracts, people who are not in unions consider them greedy, lazy pigs. They don’t spend any time at all educating themselves on the issues, they’re just pissed because they have to find someone else to look after their kids or lose work themselves.

Sorry to be a downer, but unless you are really active about getting your message out there, the people who voted Repub to start with won’t notice the pain the GOP is causing, but they will notice the pain of a strike - and blame it on the strikers.

I’m from Wisconsin and a lot of people I know who are usually conservative are incredibly pissed off about this. So, that’s good.

@9 serious bette, sigh.  I used to live in Atlanta and for a while hung out with Georgians for Choice.  One program they sponsored was a volunteer network where you host someone traveling to the city for an abortion (as you can imagine, safe abortion is almost unavailable everywhere in the state except Atlanta).  You set aside a full day and lend your sofa or guest bed to the visitor.  I was going to do it ... and then someone in the organization told me that most of the travelers are anti-abortion. 

A better person would have ignored the ugly politics.  Planned Parenthood does it all the time.  But I thought I’d be damned if I help someone who supports forced birth even when she desperately needs to terminate her own pregnancy.  And once you volunteer you can’t ask your visitor if she’s in the minority that supports safe and legal abortion.

Paul, I finally found an article that addresses what got stripped from the bill that passed the Senate last night, and the Wall Street Journal is reporting that they took out the bit about buying power companies in no bid contracts, and also the “legislative oversight” over Medicaid assistance—I’m not sure if this is referring to BadgerCare, which is a state system that provides health care to impoverished residents.  I thought it was interesting that they took that stuff out.  It makes me wonder if they think they’re going to sneak that stuff through another time, once the heat is off.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704823004576192494202834106.html

I’m surprised they didn’t just pass a bill dissolving the legislature and vesting sole authority in the Governor. That would only be a little more underhanded and despotic than what they actually did.

That there are a lot of people who vote their racial resentments is not under dispute.  All we need is a percentage of them to prioritize getting paid over screwing non-white people.  In Wisconsin, that 10% of Republicans would now vote for the Democrat would hand him an election if held today.

If Republicans retain the House next year, I will leave this country and never come back.

File another in the “anecdotes are fun” folder -

A coworker of mine has been camping out downtown at the Capitol and, whilst still half asleep in his sleeping bag and blanket, overheard a conversation among what he terms “blue collar folks” expressing worries and concerns over the impact of the legislation on their union-protected benefits and salaries. 

When he peeled back his blanket he saw that the conversation was among State Troopers assigned to “protect” the Capitol.  Scott Walker has lost the Law Enforcement vote - and that bodes ill for him…

I have a protest sign that disparages republicans.  A friend pointed out that some of the other protesters were republicans and I should focus on the legislators.  I thought about it for awhile and decided, screw that!  If those people believe in quality education, good paying jobs, and a strong middle class they need to stop fucking voting for the party that’s trying to destroy all 3.  I guess if self-identified republicans finally wake up and realize that their party is NOT fiscally conservative (and way too socially conservative), maybe some good will come from this horrible situation.

Is anyone else having presistent issues loading pandagon?  It’s always slow, sometimes incredibly slow and sometimes doesn’t load at all - I’d say it’s been going on at least a month.

I wish I could say I think this will awaken the fighting spirit in Democrats, but I bet 50 bucks this just inspires them to come to a bipartisan compromise in which they legalize this illegal legislative tactic so that we can move on, and look forward, not backward.

Still, I think that the Repubicans have made so naked their desire to destroy the middle class that people have really started to pay attention.

I don’t think so.  Give about six minths for people’s memories to fade, the media being behind the GOP, and a few inconveniences from strikes, and the general public will regard it as reasonable.

Piator: Is that supposed to be ‘months’ or ‘minutes’?  Because depending on how pessimistic I’m feeling (and anti-union talk almost always lowers my respect for humanity), either one sounds about right.

@26: yep. My faith in this country and its people, after 30 years of residency? Zilch, zero, nada. This nation deserves its slow lingering death, so far as I can tell. Fuck us.

@24: yep. Been going on at least a month, slightly better at home than at work, quite irritating!

Victoria @ 24 - I have an insane amount of trouble loading this site.  It takes well over 10 mintues to load the front page, at a good 5 or more to load comment sections, and even more if I log in.

Victoria at #24, I have been experiencing the same thing.  Sometimes I can get the front page, but not the comments.  I’ve had it try to load for hours, and I greatly resent some damn glitch preventing me from reading one of my favorite blogs.

When a friend linked to this tv spot on his Facebook page, I felt a twinge of hope re. realization and spread, too. Fingers crossed.

(Democratic groups’ new TV spot re. WI bill): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjb44QYB8nw

Indiana’s pissed too.

And if I hear one more, “Mitch Daniels is pragmatic” or “Daniels is a Republican liberals can respect” I’m going to scream. He’s one smarmy SOB. He’s basically Bush, but better at PR.

Aaaaand, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau has released a new analysis of the bill, and it appears that the provision about the purchase of power plants in no bid contracts has mysteriously re-appeared between last night and today. 

http://budget.wispolitics.com/2011/03/lfb-analysis-of-conference-committee.html

Yeah, Daniels is a class warrior, rather than just a culture warrior, and that’s supposed to make us happy.  One more for the “They think we think like they think” files.

PANDAGON SLOWNESS:  do the powers that be know about the abysmal slowness of the site?  It’s been slow and/or “iffy” for months.

Here’s what Fitzgerald is quoted as saying in the NYT article Hobbes linked to above:

The longer the Democrats keep up this childish stunt, the longer the majority can’t act on our agenda.

A fantastic example of IOKIYAR. When Senate Republicans were filibustering every damn piece of legislation, that was fine. But now, you see, they’re in the majority and they have an agenda.

“And if I hear one more, “Mitch Daniels is pragmatic” or “Daniels is a Republican liberals can respect” I’m going to scream. He’s one smarmy SOB. He’s basically Bush, but better at PR.”

Former Hoosier here, and it is true that Mitch Daniels (and his PR machine) is both dishonest and disingenuous in pushing the story that he’s somehow single handedly created a strong economy in Indiana.  It’s technically true that Daniels has managed to keep the state government’s fiscal house in order, but the actual economy of the state itself is in terribly poor shape.  Poverty, unemployment and underemployment (short term and long term) are at near crisis levels, and the educational system is terribly underfunded.  If I hear Mitch or another one of his boosters try to conflate his managing of the state’s fiscal standing with the actual economy of the state of Indiana one more time I’m going to scream.  I left the state nearly 15 years ago because I couldn’t find a decent job and have never looked back, there is just no way I could ever envision returning and raising my kids there as long as things stay the way they are.

No Daniels for President!

Republicans remind of Jehovah’s Witnesses.  JWs cling to a faith that says only 100,000 people are going to heaven, which means the majority of them are not going to be among that lucky elect.  Similarly, Republicans defend to the death the interests of a tiny handful of fantastically wealthy individuals, even though it’s in direct contradiction to most of their own economic interests.  The ones I know seem to think if they are devout enough the rich people will notice and reward them with an invitation to their exclusive club.

#39 is a wonderful example of #38. very good.

SLOW LOADING:

Check the bottom of the browser (works for Firefox and IE) and see what’s holding it up.  It may be a notorious cookie called b.scorecardsearch.com, which is some kind of tracker/tracking cookie.  I was having problems loading stuff awhile ago due to it not loading, and the thing is, you don’t know who’s really using it.  To turn it off, you have to download a cookie that will bypass its loading.  Go here, and in the middle of the 4th paragraph, there’s a link to download the cookie that will stop it from loading.

Hope this helps some of you!

Maybe EMR1976 you should realize that many liberals and leftists were opossed to Obama’s health care bill as it was just a giveaway of USian citizens to the insurance companies when we could have had single-payer or at least a public option. The only good thing in Obama’s bill was the fact that people with pre-existing conditions couln’t be dropped or denied health insurance, with translates to denial of health care when hospitals and doctors refuse to treat patients when the issue of funding is up in the air.

Also public workers work. They aren’t freeloaders, and they as a group are better educated and have more degrees than the private workers in similar fields, but end up being paid less for their skills. If you are a working person, you should have empathy for public workers, they’re more like you than the top state officials and private leaders who do work very little and reap in bonuses and rewards for failure while firing honest working people who don’t enjoy the safety nets and savings the people at the top do.

Plus the public workers of Wisconsin do pay for their perks, in the manner of deferring pay they can collect today as pay they’ll get as pension, forcing them to contribute more to their pensions is really a pay cut.

Also consider: If you are upset about a group of people generating nothing, then your ax should be against the entire financial sector who do generate nothing, but play games with money while skimming off of it to pay themselves. They are also the ones who tanked the economy but have been allowed to move on without consequence, allowed to still play games and pay themselves for doing nothing.

State workers ensure that the services a state owes to its citizens are funded, executed, and held to account. Yeas there are abuses that get discovered, and this abuses are put to an end.

Wall Street’s abuses had a negative effect on the entire freaking world, sending millions into poverty regardless of whether they were lucky enough to keep their job or not, making millions sicker by way of being unable to get health care, making millions less prepared for the future by means of less education due to schools closing and teachers being fired, and the people responsible for crimes against humanity are still allowed to do what they did, the only ones being punished being the ones that hurt a few rich people, as opposed to those who hurt the non-rich who haven’t even gotten a stern talking to.

EMR1976,

You are a coward.

EMR = troll.

Do not feed the troll.

#39 is a wonderful example of someone from the middle class that is sick of paying for the public sector workers’ to-die-for benefit packages

Uh, yeah, I pay for half of my “to-die-for-packages”, while you pay for maybe a millionth of a percent, and that’s if you live in my state.  I also educate the children of my state, for far less than I would had I been paid for mere babysitting work.  You’ve been fed a lie, friend, and you swallowed it hook-line-sinker.

Wow, I’m not the only person who finds this site slow sometimes.

EMR:

Hey, bozo, this is about your rights too. If the right wing wasn’t so busy trying to neuter unions, you might have a shot at some of that “luxury” too, ya dumbfuck.

“Winning”

Amusingly appropriate choice of words.

Why is it a “vote buying scheme” and not a genuine attempt to help someone, anyway? Or, for that matter, both?

“Winning”

Yeah, that pretty much confirms he’s trolling, y’all.

Some people are really happy with what’s happened. What I don’t understand is that even if you think unions are bad, how is the process here in any way acceptable? No one feeling gleeful realises what a bad precedent has been set.

I wunna ask these anti-union types, do you want to be under the care/tutelage/protection of nurses/educators/firefighters who know that you despise them and have voted to prevent them from ever getting a raise?

@Comment #41: SporkeyO on 03/10 at 07:44 PM

SLOW LOADING:

Check the bottom of the browser (works for Firefox and IE) and see what’s holding it up.  It may be a notorious cookie called b.scorecardsearch.com, which is some kind of tracker/tracking cookie.  ... 
Go here, and in the middle of the 4th paragraph, there’s a link to download the cookie that will stop it from loading.

Hope this helps some of you!

Thank you Sporkey, I really appreciate that! I’ve done it.

@ 24: People here have given me shit about the fact I’m still using explorer when accessing from work (it’s only one we’re supposed to use from within the home networks), but I haven’t been having nearly the trouble everyone else is describing.  It is slightly slower over the last two months or so and my comments still disappear about 20% or the time.  There is a significant lag for the refresh occationally.

If Republicans retain control of the House next year, I will leave this country and never come back.

If Republicans retain control of the House next year, I will leave this country and never come back.

Is there a realistic chance that they won’t? I’m seriously asking. My understanding is that it’s VERY hard to flip control. Maybe if Obama wins a resounding re-election victory it will help downticket but I dunno. Clinton’s coattails weren’t long enough in 96. I sure hope it’s possible but I dunno. Not trying to be concern troll, just concerned.

I’m actually looking into Singapore as a real possibility.  They like engineers, and other professions, there.

Responses: to progrocker @2: Word up.  Never underestimate the power of fear, hatred, racism, misogyny, etc.  At least a third of the country will light themselves on fire before they see a nigger or a bitch get something they don’t ‘deserve.’  I would add that too many of the rest of us aren’t willing to abuse our illusions of the Democratic Party’s willingness to put working citizens above concentrated wealth, so we fuck ourselves a little more romantically, but we’re still fucked.

to Ol_Froth @6: You are accurately paraphrasing a Hollywood portrayal of Admiral Yamamoto.  There is no record of the real Yamamoto ever saying such a thing. (See: The Seven Deadly Spins by Mickey Z)

to DonnaDiva @ 38: The correct number is 144,000.  More importantly, JWs believe that going to heaven is only a big deal for those designated to go to heaven.  Unlike some other evangelicals, JWs believe Earth will be transformed into a perfect paradise that will be absolutely bitchin’ for a flesh-and-blood hyoo-mon to live in, so those who remain there won’t consider themselves missing out or ‘left behind.’  I don’t know if that endangers your analogy, but facts are facts.

typist,

The GOP’s performance has been so horrific that I seriously could see the House going back to the Dems. That’s only a hunch, though. For the statistics, I’d check with Larry Sabato, but I do not believe he has made any 2012 predictions yet.

...they will do whatever it takes to break working people and turn this country into a banana republic.

<a >It already is a banana republic</a>. The Republicans and their mega-wealthy benefactors are simply trying to seal the deal and make the U.S. a hell on Earth for the proles.

Sorry, html fail. Here’s the link.

#39 is a wonderful example of someone from the middle class that is sick of paying for the public sector workers’ to-die-for benefit packages, while the rest of us pay out the ass for ours and ours and out states go broke.

I’m too busy envying the Koch Brothers, or the rest of the 400 wealthiest Americans, than to envy my neighbor the schoolteacher who rides a motor scooter to work, and who long ago gave up all hope of owning a home.

What state do you live in?

#59

The House control has been flipped twice in three elections, so it’s easier than you think.  Of course the 2010 election was and I will repeat this a million times if possible, because Democrats weren’t liberal enough.  Obama and company came in talking about hope and change, but little happened.  Part of it was Republicans creating an impediment, but that excuse can only go so far with super majorities in both the House and Senate.  The voters punished the Democrats by kicking out the most conservative of them leaving the party in a better state than before.  I do have hope though that the outrage over the union busting will be enough to wake more people up.

http://unsanesafe.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-to-set-forth-on-losing-streak.html

“I do have hope though that the outrage over the union busting will be enough to wake more people up. “

I want to have hope, but I just can’t quite bring myself up to hope levels.  That’s because I have seen how willing people are to vote their resentments, period.  Not just racial and misogynistic, but even workers resentments.  For some reason, people who are treated poorly at work and are not unionized vote to make sure the unions are treated as poorly as they are, rather than joining the fight so that they themselves don’t have to suffer such poor treatment.  I don’t know why I can’t convince people I know that supporting union-busting efforts hurts them, but I can’t.  They see union-busting as taking down people who are treated better than they are, so we all suffer equally, and that is somehow better in their minds than joining a union and raising themselves up so that we all benefit equally.