When I’m wrong, I say so. Yesterday, I posted Will Walker Grab His Ankles?. I thought he was going to capitulate. I never dreamed that he would direct the Republican legislators there to ignore the rules and break the law in the most blatant affront to the rule of law I have seen in my almost 63 years. It’s a whole new battlefield now. Let’s look at who is doing what including videos from Schultz and Maddow and where to go from here.
Capping a dramatic turn of events, the Wisconsin state Senate on Wednesday night passed a new, stripped-down "budget repair bill" — which now excludes all the fiscal elements of the original budget repair bill, and simply includes the original’s provisions to roll back the collective bargaining and organizational rights of Wisconsin’s public employee unions.
With all 14 Democrats absent, having fled the state weeks ago in order to block the three-fifths budget quorum, the bill passed by an 18-1 margin, with only moderate Republican Dale Schultz voting no.
Gov. Scott Walker (R) has released this statement:
"The Senate Democrats have had three weeks to debate this bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come home, which they refused. In order to move the state forward, I applaud the Legislature’s action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform government. The action today will help ensure Wisconsin has a business climate that allows the private sector to create 250,000 new jobs."
Meanwhile, state Democratic Party chairman Mike Tate has released this statement, vowing to recall all those Republican state Senators who are eligible under the state’s recall laws, which require at least one year of a term to be completed — and to recall Walker next year:
"Using tactics that trample on the traditions of our Legislature, the Republican leadership has betrayed our state. Republicans have rubber-stamped the desire of the Koch Brothers and their godshead Scott Walker to cripple Wisconsin’s middle class and lower benefits and wages for every single wage-earner in our state. The vote does nothing to create jobs, does nothing to strengthen our state, and shows finally and utterly that this never was about anything but raw political power. We now put our total focus on recalling the eligible Republican senators who voted for this heinous bill. And we also begin counting the days remaining before Scott Walker is himself eligible for recall."
Earlier, Republicans hastily convened a surprise conference committee, which met for about five minutes to approve the revised bill on a party-line 4-2 vote. The state Assembly, which had previously passed the original bill, is set to take up the revised bill on Thursday.
State Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller (D) who has been in Illinois, released this statement:
"In thirty minutes, 18 State Senators undid fifty years of civil rights in Wisconsin.
"Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten.
"Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people.
"Tomorrow we will join the people of Wisconsin in taking back their government."
The move is likely to have an enormous political impact in the state, as unions remain an important base of the Democratic Party organization in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, the unions and Democrats have been actively organizing recalls of Republican state legislators — leveraging the power of the tens of thousands of people who have protested the bill, and numerous opinion polls showing that Wisconsin voters oppose breaking the unions.
Wisconsin AFL-CIO president Phil Neuenfeldt has released a statement, entitled "Statement on Scott Walker and Republicans’ Despicable, Extreme, Anti-Democratic Activities." Key quotes:
Tonight’s trampling of the democratic process in Wisconsin shows that Scott Walker and the Republicans have been lying throughout this entire process and we have been telling the truth – that NONE of the provisions that attacked workers’ rights had anything to do with the budget.
…
Scott Walker and the Republicans’ ideological war on the middle class and working families is now indisputable, and their willingness to shred 50 years of labor peace, bipartisanship, and Wisconsin’s democratic process to pass a bill that 74% of Wisconsinites oppose is beyond reprehensible and possibly criminal."
So where do things go from here?… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <TPM>
That’s an excellent question, and I have some ideas about that, but first, here’s is Ed Schultz interviewing members of the Wisconsin 14.
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Next, Rachel Maddow and Michael Moore React to Republican criminal tactics in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Now, on where to go from here, I think everyone able to go to Madison, Wisconsin should go there to protest. I think people in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and other places where Republicans are doing similar things should descend on their own capitols en mass to protest. I think that public employee unions in states where Republicans are assaulting their rights should strike, and that all other union workers in those states should strike in support of them. And of course, efforts to recall Republicans should continue.
I cannot, in good conscience, end this piece without discussing the role President Obama and my fellow Democrats have played in this injustice. They made it possible by making America an accountability-free zone, where criminal Banksters have been taught that they may prey freely on their fellow Americans without being called to justice for their crimes. If they feared for their own freedom, they would not be so ready to set up corporate shills like, Scott Walker, America’s Shame to do their dirty work for them.
23 Responses to “Scott Walker: America’s Shame!”
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But consider how the Democrats in the Wisconsin senate behaved during this dispute, vs. what the Republicans there have now done. The contrast could not be greater. There really is a difference between the parties, and it really does matter which one we vote for.
Of course it does. The Democrats are a problem party. The Republicans are an nonredeemable party.
So you’re blaming Pres. Obama for this tragedy? Maybe … but I’m blaming all those liberals to the left of me (which I had thought was really difficult) who not only admonished Obama for not being “liberal enough” – but sanctimoniously decided to “Teach Obama a Lesson” and sniped, rebuked, chided, accused, castigated, ridiculed and blamed to the point they actually enabled the elections to put these right-wing Teapublican assholes in office.
So that whole “Teach Obama a Lesson” thing is working so perfectly, isn’t it?
Agreed!
Me too.
Nameless, I’m not blaming them, but I am saying that their failure to stand up to Republicans has contributed to it. I have already planned a piece on regressive Democrats, and your noe plan to add your linked article to it. Thanks.
All I can do is shake my head at what goes on in American politics.
Fascinating article on this here: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-labor-union-decline.
I’d like to know where this figure of 74% of Wisconsinites are against this bill – how can that be so high if so many citizens voted in all those Republicans? I’m not condoning the actions, I just want to know I’m reading accurate information.
For one thing, remember that voter turn-out in 2010 was very low. For another, Walker didn’t mention during his campaign that he was planning an all-out attack on unions. When the product you get is very different from the ad you ordered it from, buyer’s remorse can set in pretty fast.
Agree, and I fleshed it out a bit. 🙂
Welcome Annna. 🙂
The information you are reading is accurate. Polls from left wing and right wing pollsters are all within a few points of that figure. Walker and the Republicans ran on fiscal responsibility and job creation. Once elected, the had a balanced budget, created a deficit with tax cuts, took from the workers to make it up, attacked workers’ rights and lost thousands of jobs. If they had not lied about their plans, they would never been elected, and not the fools that fell for their line have buyers’ remorse.
Benji, it must be hilarious from your perspective.
I am FURIOUS about the underhanded, thoroughly dishonest way that lying bastard son of a bitch Scott Walker and his goons have sneakily screwed Wisconsin public employees!!! I hope every single one of these a-holes are recalled by WIDE margins next January, and that this wholly illegal action is totally reversed!
My dear late mother always used to say the Republicans were only for the rich and didn’t care about anybody but themselves. HOW CORRECT SHE WAS! Wisconsin public sector unions do NOT have a long history of labor strife, so the ONLY short term benificiaries of this ridiculous bill will be the very wealthy who want total and absolute control.
The Koch brother-funded Teapublicans ought to all be outlawed by executive decree and sent into the streets packing. A little taste of their own medicine is just what they deserve. Scott Walker and his plutocratic puppet GOP have turned Wisconsin into a one party dictatorship. They MUST be thrown out of office for good!
So am I Jack. I fully support recalling them all.
In the event anyone here is interested –
Act Blue: Join the Recall Effort in Wisconsin
Earlier today, I sent in my contribution – ten times what I gave last time. And if I am just as angry tomorrow as I am today, I’ll send another contribution – 100 times more than today – until the proto-fascists have been removed from office.
Thanks for this, Octo. I sent my contribution through a different group, but this is just as good.
Just look at the most rabid anti-union, anti-worker, and anti-bargaining rights forces, and the lines are clear. Arab Dictators, Fascists, Communists…and Republicans all need to suppress the people in order to hold power. This is nothing less than the struggle between democracy and totalitarianism.
Interesting. I used the same word to describe it yesterday. Great minds… 🙂
shameful
adjective disgraceful, outrageous, scandalous, mean, low, base, infamous, indecent, degrading, vile, wicked, atrocious, unworthy, reprehensible, ignominious, dastardly, unbecoming, dishonourable It is a shameful state of affairs.
SEEMS TO FIT ;
2. shame – a state of dishonor; “one mistake brought shame to all his family”; “suffered the ignominy of being sent to prison”
disgrace, ignominy
dishonor, dishonour – a state of shame or disgrace; “he was resigned to a life of dishonor”
humiliation – state of disgrace or loss of self-respect
obloquy, opprobrium – state of disgrace resulting from public abuse
odium – state of disgrace resulting from detestable behavior
reproach – disgrace or shame; “he brought reproach upon his family”
Yes indeed– all of the above and even more
RepubliSpeak Dictionary – Shame: The feeling we get whenever an attempt to steal candy from a baby fails.