Watch The Republicans Screw Wisconsin on WisEye

The Joint Finance Committee is debating the Assembly mining bill and a fake compromise offered by Republicans Darling and Vos. You can watch the debate live on WisEye.

Instead of compromising with Republican Senator Dale Schultz and Democrats by supporting the bipartisan Wisconsin Way Mining Reform Act which keeps our existing environmental protections (bulletpoint overview), the Republican leadership has offered another fake compromise. Schultz has rejected the fake compromise, Jauch plans to offer the WWMR Act to the JFC, and we're set for a major battle.

Rep. Cory Mason said in reference to language in the fake compromise, "Could this be drafted wrong?" As the language is "appalling" according to Sen. Bob Jauch. I missed the specific language they were referring to. Sen. Lena Taylor blasted the Republican leadership for drafting the new bill behind closed doors and giving the committee only a few hours to review it before a vote.

A less-talked about issue with the Assembly bill is how much money it allows a mining company to not pay the local communities. Sen. Jauch noted that the fake compromise continues to take significant amounts of money out of the local communities.

I'm 99% sure we're going to get new mining legislation whether we like it or not. We'll likely end up with something worse if we don't support the WWMR Act, since it's what has been offered by the opposition to the Assembly bill and the Republicans need this to have any appearance of trying to create jobs.

Senator Dale Schultz's passionate statement on why he crafted the WWMR Act with Jauch and how it compromises with the Republican leadership is a compelling read. I strongly encourage your indulgence.

Read A Plea for the Wisconsin Way Mining Reform Act for more information why we need the Wisconsin Way Mining Reform Act, the failure of the Republican leadership to draft legislation in the open, and the pressure they've put on Schultz to cave.

Call or email everyone: Schultz, Republican, Democrat, we need mining legislation that doesn't curb existing environmental protections, retains our level of input and review, and gives local communities the funds they deserve. We need the Wisconsin Way Mining Reform Act.

Update: 3:15pm The JFC has adjourned for an hour for the Democrats to review what they learned about the fake compromise. It took 3 hours for the Legislative Reference Bureau to walk the Democrats through all of the changes to the Assembly bill that they'll be expected to vote on when they come back. Sen. Jauch said that through the 3 hours the Democrats "could barely take a breath" with all of the questions they needed to ask to understand the changes.

Schultz has already rejected the fake compromise saying the pseudo contested cases it includes "is no compromise at all. In fact, it makes a bad idea worse."

Jauch submitted a substitute amendment for review by the JFC, which I believe is the Wisconisin Way Mining Reform Act.

At 3:35pm on WisEye Schultz and Jauch are talking about the bills.

WisconsinEye Must Open Their Videos To All Wisconsinites

WisconsinEye is to Wisconsin politics what C-SPAN is to federal politics. They're a non-profit organization that provides video of all public events in the State Assembly and Senate as well as news conferences and other public policy events. WisconsinEye broadcasts these videos on Charter Cable Channel 995 and via streaming video on their website. WisconsinEye is an invaluable public resource, but they're not as open as they appear, nor as they should be.

As a non-profit resource for the citizens of Wisconsin, WisconsinEye must make their content easily accessible and available to all Wisconsinites. However, they currently lock down their video in proprietary Microsoft software. This makes it very difficult for Wisconsinites to view and share the pivotal events that take place in the people's house, and it unnecessarily increases WisconsinEye's expenses.

The videos are stored in the Windows Media format, which makes them very difficult to view unless you're running Windows. If you use a Mac, you have to install special Microsoft software called Silverlight, and even if you run Windows you may have to. In the days of YouTube, where special software is rarely required to view videos online, why does WisconsinEye make us install special software to view public content?

The level of difficulty that WisconsinEye users experience and the steps required to view a video is depicted in WisconsinEye's barely helpful help page.

I don't use Windows. I don't even use a Mac most of the time. I use a beautiful OS called Linux. So, since the videos are in Windows Media format, I have to violate a few questionable user agreements just to view the WisconsinEye videos. Why should it be potentially illegal for Wisconsinites to view videos of sessions of our Senate and Assembly? There's absolutely no good reason.

Linux isn't even the biggest WisconsinEye loser. No smartphone can view and access the WisconsinEye video archives. Not iPhone, and not Android. So, when you're not sitting in front of a computer, you can't view what's going on in the Capitol, but you can watch all the YouTube videos you want. We can do better, cheaper.

WisconsinEye should make it easy to embed videos in third-party websites as other video and news sites such as YouTube and MSNBC do. Wisconsin's other non-profit channel, Wisconsin Public Television allows embedding of videos. If WisconsinEye doesn't want to offer the bandwidth to embed their videos in other websites, they need to offer their videos for free download - not just streaming. Without that ability, we're left to chopping up the WisconsinEye videos and posting them on YouTube via the fair use doctrine. Not only that, but WisconsinEye wants you to think you're in violation of the law when doing so, by making you click through a user agreement.

This is absolutely unacceptable, and recently, WisconsinEye seems to have made sharing even more difficult. It should be clear that Wisconsinites have the right to share clips of WisconsinEye videos, and Wisconsinites should have the right to share full videos for non-commercial use.

This is not how a non-profit resource should be provided. It's like your local library saying you can read all the books you want in the library, but you can't make copies of any text or take any books out of the library to share with friends. That's just ridiculous.

There is free software that WisconsinEye could use instead of the proprietary Microsoft software to both save money and make it easier for Wisconsinites to view and share WisconsinEye videos. Switching from Windows Media to a format such as WebM would reduce the complexity of viewing files for the majority of WisconsinEye users. Most users won't have to install any additional software to view WebM videos. It would also immediately add support for Linux users (I realize we're few and far between, but we also tend to be informed and vocal). A different royalty-free video format, H.264, would allow iPhones and Android phones to view WisconsinEye videos, too.

All WisconsinEye videos of government proceedings should be licensed under a Creative Commons license. So that everyone knows that we can share the public resource, and so we have the unambiguous right to share full videos. WisconsinEye can still lock down their original content (which is quite good) and try to make money selling DVDs, but the videos of government proceedings must be open and freely available online. Making these changes probably won't reduce their revenue from DVD sales, they'll save money on Microsoft license fees, and they'll get more exposure and viewers.

I find it difficult to support WisconsinEye while they keep their videos of government proceedings locked down. It just doesn't make economic or ethical sense.

Time Warner Cable or AT&T U-Verse customer? You're missing out on WisconsinEye.

Late Night Destruction of Wisconsin - Wetland Destruction Bill Passed

Republicans in the State Senate rammed through another bill under cover of night, the Wetland Destruction Bill (SB 368), even though the Republicans campaigned against such tactics. Just like the collective bargaining rights-stripping bill (1 AM) and the voter suppression bill (11 PM), the vote took place late at night, just past midnight.

How do you know the bill is bad? Because the Republicans rammed it through as quickly as possible when the fewest people will notice. Many people, including environment and wildlife sporting groups, are very concerned the bill if enacted would result in substantial loss of Wisconsin wetlands and wildlife.

Earlier Tuesday, Scott Fitzgerald abruptly postponed debate on the bill after Democrat Senator Fred Risser moved to vote on a bill restoring collective bargaining rights for public workers that were taken away by the collective bargaining rights-stripping bill (Act 10).

Senator Dave Hansen gave a passionate speech for the rights of workers. Then, at his first chance, Fitzgerald jumped up and ripped into the microphone, "It is the anniversary, but I'm wondering what we're talking about. Are we talking about Kathleen Falk?"

Were you listening at all, Scott? We're talking about restoring rights you took away. What does Kathleen Falk have to do with the bill Risser tried to bring to a vote?

If it's about corruption, Fitzgerald said, "I'd love to talk about that all day if you want." Is it so wrong that a gubernatorial candidate said they support workers' rights? Is that corruption? An open statement in support of rights? And secret meetings at private law firms to gerrymander your district isn't corruption?

Fitzgerald ended his tirade by slamming Senator Hansen and then moving to adjourn until 12:01 AM, "Senator from the 30th, boy I wish Senator Nygren would have gotten enough signatures to get on the ballet, because you'd be gone too right now." It sounds like Fitzgerald is worried he'll get voted out and jealous that Hansen wasn't.

Senate Republicans voted in step with Fitzgerald and the Senate reconvened at 12:01 AM and quickly moved to a vote on the Wetland Destruction Bill. The Republicans passed the bill onto the Assembly on a party-line vote. Protesters against the bill could be heard in the gallery, but I'm sure far fewer people were able to attend or watch at midnight.

I don't have a video for you, because WisconsinEye continues to lock down their videos, making it impossible for us to share videos of our government's proceedings. However, if you have a Windows PC, or are good with your Mac, you can view the videos here and here.

If you are unable to see the debate and votes, you can thank Scott Fitzgerald for his part. This is one of the reasons he has been recalled.