Teevee news is doing very little coverage of the union pushback in Wisconsin.
Category: Class War
Russ Feingold
A politician who not only didn’t cash in, he’s taking it to the people:
WASHINGTON — When some senators retire, they decide to take lucrative lobbying jobs. Others go straight to Wall Street. But Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold, who lost his re-election bid in November, is continuing on his principled — and often lonely — path by starting an organization to combat corporate influence in politics, an effort he hopes will spark “a new progressive movement” that will truly hold elected officials accountable.
Launching on Wednesday, Progressives United is an attempt to to build a grassroots effort aimed at mitigating the effects of, and eventually overturning, the Supreme Court’s infamous Citizens United decision that opened the floodgates to corporate spending in the U.S. electoral system. In addition to online mobilization, the political action committee (PAC) will support progressive candidates at the local, state and national levels, as well as holding the media and elected officials accountable on the group’s key priorities.
“In my view — and the view of many people — it’s one of the most lawless decisions in the history of our country,” said Feingold of Citizens United in an interview with The Huffington Post. “The idea of allowing corporations to have unlimited influence on our democracy is very dangerous, obviously. That’s exactly what it does … Things were like this 100 years ago in the United States, with the huge corporate and business power of the oil companies and others. But this time it’s like the Gilded Age on steroids.”
‘I have become much stronger’
Women rising up in Egypt against patriarchal rule and Sharia law after taking part in the revolution.
Remember, it was a group of Egyptian women who finally stopped Lara Logan’s rape.
Libya
Police state
Sounds like every cop in Wisconsin’s at the Capitol today. From Uppity Wisconsin:
An anonymous State Patrol officer cited Wisconsin State Statute 110.07(2m) which says in part that, “No state traffic officer shall be used in or take part in any dispute or controversy between employer or employee concerning wages, hours, labor or working conditions… .”
Aware of this, many of the state troopers who were ordered to mobilize this week in response to protests at the Capitol reportedly voiced strenuous objections to their managers. They were ordered to deploy regardless, without any rationale being offered for why the statute might not be applicable in this instance.
But what are a few violations of state law here and there when you’re a besieged governor trying to undo the peoples’ work?
Hell yes
Robert Reich proposes raising taxes on the super-rich to 70 percent – slightly less than under Eisenhower.
More Wisconsin
Because damn it, this makes me hopeful that we’re not going to hand our country over to these bastards!
This union-busting strategy was planned by the Republican Governors Association, of which the corporate media seems oddly unaware:
MADISON, Wis. — Thousands of public employees and supporters converged at a hearing at the capitol here that ran into the wee hours of Wednesday morning to voice their objection to a proposal to cut their benefits and remove most of their unions’ ability to bargain.
RelatedWisconsin May Take an Ax to State Workers’ Benefits and Their Unions (February 12, 2011)
The show of anger was powerful. Madison schools were closed on Wednesday after scores of teachers called in sick and appeared headed to lobby exhausted-looking lawmakers, who had heard more than 17 hours of comments in a public hearing that began on Tuesday morning. More buses of public workers from other parts of the state were still pulling up near dawn on Wednesday.The target of their fury was a proposal by Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican elected in November, to press through a “repair bill” that would help solve the state’s $137 million budget shortfall by requiring government workers to contribute significantly more to their pensions and health care, while limiting collective bargaining for most state and local government employees to the issue of wages, excluding an array of issues like health coverage and vacations.
Wisconsin
Go, cheeseheads!
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Lowest common denominator
So as part of a new trade deal with the U.S., Canadians will be stripped of their own regulatory standards so they don’t “inhibit” U.S. manufacturers who have to meet Canada’s higher standards.
Progress! Jobs! Race to the bottom!
