Scott Walker Has Miraculously Recovered from Debilitating Flu

Thank God, I didn't want him to miss his meeting with his REAL bosses at the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) today. According to Scott Walker's latest tweets, he miraculously recovered from the flu that prevented him from visiting Master Lock, a union shop, with the President yesterday.

Walker first tweeted that he was sick on Tuesday morning. Wednesday morning, he tweeted that he was "still recovering from a nasty case of the flu," and then a few hours later, just after his scheduled meeting with President Obama was to take place, he tweeted that he was feeling better.

"...glad I'm feeling better after some rest.

After a good afternoon of rest, was able to host Hispanic leaders for discussion of expanding prosperity & opportunity."

I gave Walker the benefit of the doubt yesterday, believing he was sick while others doubted. However, his quick and timely recovery, allowing him to skip just the successful union shop, looks very suspicious. We all knew he wouldn't miss time in front of the media or his meeting with some of his biggest campaign supporters at the WMC lobby group early this afternoon.

One wonders why he didn't want to go to a successful union workplace with the President who's increased private-sector jobs every month for the past 23 consecutive months. Probably 'cause that's not Walker's tune: success, job creation and unions.

Disgraceful.

Join the Wisconsin Wave in protesting at Walker's meeting

"In protest the Wisconsin Wave will lead a picket and rally outside of the event to further expose and delegitimize this secretive, reactionary institution which literally wrote and funded most of the anti-worker, anti-family, anti-Wisconsin legislation forced through the legislature this past year.

WMC and its undisclosed industry backers are the entities who really run the show in Wisconsin, no matter who is in power. Join us as we call out WMC for their role in buying our democracy (more on this below) and advancing their extremist right-wing agenda."

February 11th: Wisconsin Day!

One year ago today, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the Koch brothers unleashed their assault on the rights of our public workers, our education, our poor, our health, and nearly everything else Wisconsin values.

One year ago today, the people of Wisconsin stood up to Walker and his rich corporate interests in historic fashion. The Wisconsin Wave has declared February 11th a new holiday - Wisconsin Day. We began the first big protests of the United States in recent history and that energy later led to the 99% and Occupy Wall Street movements. Wisconsin Wave is holding a rally noon today at the Capitol to mark the first Wisconsin Day!'

Rallies start today at 10:30am marching from the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce to the Capitol in the Bury the Mining Bill Feeder March until the Wisconsin Day rally at noon.

From the Wisconsin Wave:

February 11th is the one-year anniversary of the day Walker and his funders launched their all out assault against everything that makes Wisconsin a great place to live, work, and learn. It also marks the anniversary of the day the people of Wisconsin rose up in mass protest to not only “kill the bill,” but also to demand an end to the many economic and social injustices present in our society.

Come celebrate this historic day with a rally hosted by the Wisconsin Wave to mark a new holiday- Wisconsin Day! Speakers will address the challenges and opportunities the grassroots social movement born a year ago faces moving forward.

The rally will also serve as a launching point for a “No More Stolen Elections” campaign which will work to ensure future elections are free of voter suppression and the intentional manipulation of election results.

Speakers include: Peter Barca, State Assembly Rep.; Mahlon Mitchell, Professional Firefighters of WI; John Nichols, Capital Times & The Nation; Charity Schmidt, UW-Madison TAA; Leland Pan, UW-Madison student government, Ben Manski, Liberty Tree Foundation; John Peck, Family Farm Defenders and others!

RSVP/spread the word on facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/318774838159369/

This event is part of an Anniversary Week of Action to celebrate the Wisconsin Uprising. Click here for more info!

The Fight Is Not Over, Wisconsin - Massive Rally at the Capital Saturday!

The Wisconsin Wave and We Are Wisconsin are organizing a massive rally this Saturday in Madison at the Capital from 2:30-4:00pm with music and speakers. Come show Walker and the Republicans that we care deeply about Wisconsin's future, and we won't stop fighting until they start talking about real solutions to balance the budget and most importantly create jobs.

From the Wisconsin Wave:

Walker and legislative allies plan to bypass courts, jam rights-stripping measures through with their budget proposal!

We Are Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Wave will host a rally on the Capitol steps on Saturday, May 14, to send Scott Walker and his legislative allies a resounding message: stop your attacks on working people.

RSVP here: http://wisconsinwave.org/rsvp-may-14th
(please see the bottom of this event posting for info about buses coming from outside of Madison)

Wisconsinites have joined together and prevented Scott Walker’s radical plan to take away worker rights for three months, but he is not done. As we learned from their illegal attempt to jam through the budget repair bill in the dark of night, Walker and his allies are so hell-bent on taking away the rights of Wisconsin workers that they are prepared to use any and all means necessary to achieve their goals.

Now, with their first cynical attempt at union-busting tied up in the courts, Walker’s allies now say they’re ready to add the rights-stripping measures to the state budget now flying through the legislature.

Reintroducing plans to take bargaining rights away from workers into Scott Walker’s fatally-flawed state budget would consolidate Walker’s attacks on Wisconsin’s middle class into a single, horrific piece of legislation. Scott Walker’s budget:

• Raises costs in health care and food assistance programs that are relied upon by 1.2 million workers, unemployed, retired and disabled people in Wisconsin
• Breaks up and corporatizes the UW System, raising tuition and threatening closure of campuses
• Guts the ability of Wisconsin Technical Colleges to prepare and retrain working people
• Eliminates advanced placement and science and technology course in schools
• Rolls back recycling and conservation programs throughout Wisconsin

Despite all of this, Scott Walker’s fatally-flawed budget still has plenty of room for gifts for his dearest friends. Containing $200 million of tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in giveaways to his largest donors, Walker’s budget is a bonanza for the donors and corporate lobbyists who surely wrote it.

The legislature must reject this horrifying budget and start over. The attacks on working families, seniors, students, the poor, and the environment and our rights must end. Join We Are Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Wave at the State Capitol at 2:30pm on Saturday, May 14, because our fight continues and we will not be silenced.

Buses will be driven in from all over Wisconsin. See the Wisconsin Wave site for more details.

Help take a stand against extreme-right policies and for real solutions! Join us this Saturday at the Capital from 2:30pm-4pm.

Don't forget to bring your friends and family, because these rallies have been peaceful and fun community events with many different people from all over Wisconsin.

"Wisconsin Is Just The Beginning"

Wisconsin's been all over the national news, whether it's the recalls of the Republican 8, the controversial Supreme Court election, or Paul Ryan's budget plan. I think all of this focus on Wisconsin is helping us move Forward past the ridiculous plans of Scott Walker and the Republicans, and it's also helping to spread Wisconsin values across the nation. Some of these national news shows have been doing great reporting on Wisconsin, and I'd like to share with you some very interesting and informative reports from Wednesday evening.

The Rachel Maddow Show ran two segments on Wisconsin. In the first, Rachel discussed the latest news on the Supreme Court election and summarized its ramifications. She ended the segment saying, "the Democrats in that state are turning political outrage in their state into political outcomes in their state."

In the second segment, Rachel discussed how the momentum in Wisconsin is gaining and spreading beyond our borders. Rachel showed a very informative map of Wisconsin indicating all of the counties that voted more for Kloppenburg than they did for Walker just a few months ago. There was very little momentum gained by the Republican-backed Prosser, and almost every county in Wisconsin voted more for Kloppenburg than they had for Walker. In fact, the districts that swung against Walker include all of the districts of the four Republican 8 expecting a recall election. This is significant, but elections and particularly a small election like this one are not good indicators of overall state mood.

Rachel's interviewee, Dante Chinni from Patchwork Nation, said Wisconsin contains many "service worker centers." Chinni defines these places as having lots of good jobs in the public sector with fewer in the private. He said he thinks the momentum is coming from the attacks on those jobs by politicians, particularly collective bargaining. Chinni said, "Wisconsin is just the beginning." They called it the "Wisconsin Effect" and said that Republicans are very afraid. In Wisconsin, we've been calling the "Wisconsin Effect" the Wisconsin Wave.



Later, Ed Schultz showed the most footage from Paul Ryan's town hall on his The Ed Show on MSNBC. Ed shows a very great question from a resident, Ryan's response and the reaction from the crowd. Ryan got "smacked down" by the residents for giving tax cuts to the rich while asking others to pay more.

Ed interviewed the person from ThinkProgress who shot the video, Scott Keyes. Keyes gave a very informative account of Ryan's town halls. Laura Flanders said, "It's the super rich against everyone else," and Ed noted that it appeared Ryan supporters were at the meeting trying to tell him he's wrong. Keyes agreed and said he saw "a lot of anxiety there in the crowds." Later, Flanders said, "The seniors are not buying what Ryan is selling."



Then, in another segment, Ed continued his coverage of politics in Wisconsin. Ed said, "I'm not gonna get off of this story because I think fundamentally this is one of the biggest stories in America. This is change. This is change you can believe in."

Ed attacked Walker's statements that the recalls are being driven by Madison, and then interviewed Adam Green of the Progressive Change Committee. They discussed the recalls, the process, and possible ramifications. Then Green said there will be a really important conference call Thursday at 9:30am from Mike Tate, head of the Wisconsin Democrats, regarding the Republicans' efforts to collect recall signatures for Democrats. He said that Tate will be alleging "outright fraud."



It sounds like this conference at 9:30am will be interesting. I was wondering why the Republicans were holding off on their announcement, waiting until enough signatures were collected for three Democrats. Just didn't seem politically intelligent. Now it sounds like they may have been holding back because of nefarious actions.

Wisconsin, Dump Tea! Dump Palin! Noon Saturday At The Capitol

Reported on Uppity Wisconsin, Sarah Palin will be here in Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday from 12pm to 2pm at the King St. entrance to the Capitol for the Americans for Prosperity Tax Day Rally.

The Wisconsin Wave is organizing a counter-protest at 12pm at the State Street entrance to the Capitol called "Counterprotest the Corporate Puppets: Dump Tea! Dump Palin!" From their website,

Please share widely. The puppets are coming, the puppets are coming! Corporate puppets Sarah Palin and "Americans" for "Prosperity" are rallying at our Wisconsin State Capitol on 4/16. For more information: http://www.danegop.org/latestnews.aspx

BRING PUPPETS -- sock puppets, hand puppets, marionettes, shadow puppets, finger puppets and muppets!

BRING LIBERTY BELLS -- that means cowbells, dinner bells, doorbells, jingle bells, you name it, and let's ring in Wisconsin's independence from corporate rule!

Let's show 'em how we really feel about big corporations passing the tax burden on to the rest of us!

And remember folks, come on out early and support family farmers at the seasons first outdoor farmers market. Now more than ever it is important to spend locally.

WISCONSIN WAVE
We Won't Pay for Their Crisis!
http://www.WisconsinWave.org

The Wisconsin Wave is a non-partisan effort to unite Wisconsinites against corporatization and austerity, and for democracy and shared prosperity.

Americans for Prosperity has had this planned for some time, and I'm sure they'll come with bus loads. So we need as many people to come in support of democracy and workers' rights as possible.

These protests are not only fun, they're also patriotic. I'll be there, and all those who support democracy and workers' rights should come too!

You Can Help Fix Waukesha County, Here Are Some Ways

Update: (9:55am) The Wisconsin Democrats just announced they have asked the Government Accountability Board to investigate the Waukesha County vote totals from the 2006 election as well. So, we're making progress, but we need to keep it up. The original post is below.

Tens of thousands of Wisconsinites have signed a petition requesting a bipartisan investigation into the Waukesha County vote count. You can sign it too, and I urge you to do so. However, there are many other effective ways you can help fix Waukesha County, and I implore you to do so now.

We need a clear explanation of Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus's "common human error" without spending any more tax payer money. Nickolaus must answer our questions now before we can reasonably consider all of the vote counts official and before anyone can begin to consider a recount. It's Nickolaus's duty to her office, because whether a recount is needed and how much it'll cost Wisconsin depend upon the issues in Waukesha County. If she doesn't fulfill her duty before a recount must be considered, Nickolaus must resign because we'll never be able to trust her or her competence for that office.

If you are unfamiliar with the relevant issues involving the vote counts in Waukesha County, a Google search will turn up loads of results, Ramona Kitzinger, the only non-Republican member of the Waukesha County Board of Canvassers described some issues here, and I described some issues here as well. I also felt compelled to post quite extensively on the topic.

We the people of Wisconsin know so very little information about the vote counting process and election system in Waukesha County. We don't know for sure that other votes haven't been lost, or that votes were never lost to begin with. We must demand answers whether we live in Waukesha County or any other county in Wisconsin and whether we're Republicans, Democrats or independents, because counting votes right the first time is critical. The results from our computer election systems affect everything that happens after an election, and we need to make sure they're accurate, secure, and used properly.

But it's Nickolaus's duty to provide us with the needed information without us asking for an investigation or a recount.

The latest vote counts can be found here. Milwaukee County is the only county that hasn't completed their canvass. Many of the important issues in Waukesha County may be swept under the table once Milwaukee County finishes their canvass. We thought Milwaukee County would finish earlier this week, but according to WisPolitics they're expected to finish Thursday. So, it's vitally important that we demand answers now and express our doubts with the vote counts from Waukesha County. It's our duty as citizens of Wisconsin.

Here are some other effective things you can do besides signing the petition:

Even if you don't live in Wisconsin, you can help us demand U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder investigate the vote counts in Waukesha County. U.S. Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin already sent a letter to Holder on April 8 requesting an investigation. National focus on the issues in Waukesha County could help get some answers. So giving Wisconsin some more attention is much appreciated.

We must demand real solutions to problems with our election systems, unlike requiring an ID to vote which is provably not a solution to a very minor issue, it only seeks to stifle valid voters. A world-renowned security expert, Bruce Schneier, described some of the very real issues with election systems after questions over election security during the 2004 elections. A more recent essay by Schneier describes a situation much like the current one in Waukesha County, a 386-vote margin with 18,000 lost votes due to computer error. The only way we can avoid situations like the one in Waukesha County is to demand more transparency in our elections through open election systems. A non-profit organization that has been successful in these efforts is the Open Voting Consortium (I don't know them or have any affiliation).

Wisconsinites can file a complaint with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board regarding issues with the processes and security of the Waukesha County election system, the delayed explanation we were given for the missing votes, and Nickolaus's refusal to give a clear explanation for over a week. The GAB has a complaint form here: http://gab.wi.gov/node/1282. The election official in this case is Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus.

You can join the wave of rallies across Wisconsin happening every day. Wisconsin Wave is a non-partisan effort to unite Wisconsinites together in support of democracy and other fundamental Wisconsin values. They have a list of their events here. Many other events are listed at Defend Wisconsin. There are probably many other events not included in those two lists, but they're good places to start.

The most important thing you can do right now is help us push Kathy Nickolaus to answer our relevant questions before all of the vote counts are considered official. Spread the word. Tell your friends and family about the questions you have, why you think Nickolaus should answer those questions before all of the vote counts are considered official, and how they can help. Contact the press and your state representatives, and demand a clear explanation before the counts are considered official.

Contacting the press may prove to be most effective, and Facebook and Twitter are effective as well, so don't forget them. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

Time is of the essence.

Wisconsin, What Are We Fighting For?

I've been trying to come up with a few words that can describe what we're fighting for, so that our message is delivered every time we're mentioned. The protests at the Capitol in Madison began because we were standing up for workers' rights. However, during the course of this battle, we've come to realize there are other interconnected issues such as corporate influence in our politics, voter rights, and tax policy, as well as other issues that are important to Wisconsin which are being swept away with little or no public debate such as education, healthcare, and the middle class. If we don't dig our heels in now, more of what we value in Wisconsin will erode away before the next election.

So, I've been using the words "Workers' Rights" because they were straight and to the point. I could use the words to describe the rallies as "workers' rights rallies" and immediately get the message across what's being rallied for. Yet, now we're really fighting for workers' rights and other things we value in Wisconsin and are proud to have, what could be called the "Wisconsin Way."

There's a non-partisan organization that was recently started by many prominent members of Wisconsin in business and politics called the Wisconsin Wave. The organization's goals are aligned with the ideas I've mentioned here, and I fully support the effort. However, because it's the name of an organization, I'm not sure using it would have the same value. Are the words "Wisconsin Wave" good words to describe what we're fighting for?

Let me throw out some other ideas, and then I'd like to hear what other people think.

Jon Stewart had his "Return to Sanity Rally," which I admit is a good name. Should we adopt this name?

From there, I thought of "Return to Reality," which has the same message. The only caveat I have for these two phrases is that they may be too strong. I don't want people to think that we consider anyone who disagrees with us insane or in another reality. I think they don't quite deliver the correct message. What do you think?

Then I thought of cheese and the slogans used for Wisconsin cheese. Are we fighting for "100% Wisconsin" or "Real Wisconsin"? I think these phrases have nearly the same caveat as the previous two.

At the moment I think "Wisconsin Way" is the best phrase besides "Wisconsin Wave." Or do we just keep "Workers' Rights"? What are your thoughts and ideas?

Wisconsin Wave

I just saw this article about the Wisconsin Wave, and I think it's what most of Wisconsin has been asking for. They had a rally Saturday at the Capitol with some prominent members of our state.

It's a non-partisan Wisconsin movement that stands for these basic things:

• Our state government must guarantee a fully funded public sector including education, health care, human services, transportation, public safety, and vital regulatory agencies.
• Taxes on large corporations and wealthy individuals should be returned to reasonable levels in order to solve the state’s fiscal crisis.
• The state must respect the rights of workers to organize unions and bargain collectively.
• Initial budget priorities must be established through public participation instead of closed door meetings between public officials and special interest lobbyists.
• Voting rights must be expanded, not limited, to insure that every Wisconsinite can take part in our democracy.
• Wisconsin deserves government of, by, and for the people, not the corporate elite; corporations have no constitutional rights and may not buy our elections or government.

Wisconsin Wave seems to be the most organized group aligned with the interests of the protesters, and it includes many leaders from our communities. We really need to get behind a few good organizations, so we can focus our energy best.